


Papyrus and the Tainted Soul

by ShadowMelter



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Brutality, Dissociation, Feels, Gen, Mayhem, bad Papyrus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:04:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 22,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5449352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowMelter/pseuds/ShadowMelter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Papyrus accidentally kills the small human. When he attempted to grab Frisk's soul he mistakenly grabbed Chara's instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Was He a Bad Person?

He didn’t mean for it to happen. He only wanted to fight the human until he was able to capture them and put them in his shed so he could prove to Undyne how great he was. She was going to be so impressed that she would have had to have let him join the Royal Guard. So then… how did things end up so wrong? 

The human had been so kind to him. They solved all his complex and extremely impressive puzzles, they resisted his totally awesome spaghetti just so they could share it with him later, and they even made his brother Sans happy by playing along with his irritating jokes. Why did he attack the human? Was… was he a bad person?

The human had been doing really well during the fight! They were very good at dodging his attacks but he could tell they were starting to get tired near the end of it. He had just sent a really neat bone attack towards the human when they tripped on one of his bones that he had used in a previous attack. His new attack caused bones to jut out of the ground, and when the human tripped they sustained a direct hit from his suddenly not so neat new attack. He wasn’t exactly sure what happened next. The bones from the new attack just sort of went through the small human, and they began leaking a lot of red stuff that looked an awful lot like Sans’ ketchup. But it wasn’t ketchup… and he was very certain that this red stuff was supposed to stay inside of the human. 

Now Papyrus was standing still in the snow. His scarf was flapping gently in the wind as he stared down at the small broken human lying at his feet. He knelt down and laid his red gloved hand gently on the human’s shoulder. 

“W-wake up Human! Now is not the time to be resting!” Nothing happened. 

“Human you must wake up! How am I supposed to share my spaghetti with you if you’re sleeping!?” Nothing happened.

Tears began to fall from his eye sockets as the reality of the situation began to sink in. He had killed the human. He WAS a bad person! No no no no! Th-this couldn’t be happening. He never wanted this. He would never want this! 

He held the human tight to his chest as he sobbed into the human’s blue sweater. “Please human, I’m sorry! Please…” Papyrus squeezed his eye sockets shut tight and wept. 

Eventually Papyrus looked up and noticed a soft, pulsing, red light hovering above the human. It was their soul! It was so beautiful Papyrus immediately began tearing up again at the sight of it. Without thinking he reached out to grasp it. 

He didn’t even notice that the red soul flickered black just before his gloved hand wrapped around it. 

The moment Papyrus touched the soul it felt like a lightning bolt was ripping through his very essences. I-it hu-hurt! It was hurting him! His right eye socket felt like it had burst into flames, and waves of pain shot through his body. As he writhed on the ground he cried out in agony, “Help me! Somebody please help me!” The pain abruptly stopped and a voice he didn’t recognize responded to his call.

 **“I’ll help you.”** The voice sounded like it was coming from within his own skull.

“Wh-who are you?” 

**“My name is Chara, and I really must thank you so much for freeing me from that human’s soul. That was awfully kind of you.”**

“You came from the small human’s soul?” He wiped his tear stained face with his bony arm and asked, “How did you get stuck in their soul? Are you a human?”

**“That’s not important. What’s important to me right now is helping you.”**

“Yes… yes, I need help. My right eye socket feels funny.” He clasped his hand over his eye socket and could feel that it was emitting a strange warmth. 

**“Perhaps you should look into the river,”** The voice calmly suggested.

Papyrus staggered to his feet and walked the short distance to the river before dropping once again to his knees. When he saw his reflection he gasped. His eye socket WAS on fire! No… he was wrong. It was glowing orange and the strange aura moved like it was fire but it wasn’t. He vaguely recalled his brother being able to summon a similar blue eye when he was very angry. It only happened a few times because Sans was rarely ever angry. Papyrus just assumed he didn’t have that ability. 

**“You didn’t have that ability, but since you killed the mean human that trapped me you have gotten a lot stronger!”**

Papyrus didn’t like this at all. He thought the human was nice and he didn’t like the feeling of getting stronger just because he killed something. He wondered for a brief moment how much EXP and LV he had just obtained by killing the human, but he quickly pushed those thoughts out of his mind because it made him feel sick to his nonexistent stomach. 

Looking back at his reflection he asked, “How do I make it stop?”

 **“I believe once you calm down it will go away, but first you need to get rid of the human’s body.”** The voice called ‘Chara’ was so nonchalant despite the gruesome task it had just assigned to the skeleton. 

“Why would I do that!?”

 **“You wouldn’t want the town to find out that you killed the human right? What would Sans think if he knew his sweet, innocent, little brother was a murderer?”**

A shiver ran up Papyrus’s spine at those cold words. However, he also knew that the voice was correct, and he needed to get rid of the human’s body. His brother would be disappointed in him if he knew what he had done. Maybe he would even hate him. Papyrus looked at the body with dread and said, “I think maybe you’re right, but I don’t want to touch it anymore.”

**“That’s fine. This is a good opportunity to try out your new magic. Why not use it to lift the human and throw it into the river?”**

Part of Papyrus wanted to tell Chara ‘NO!’ but another part he never knew existed was screaming at him to obey. It’s not like he could gain more EXP by disposing of the body right? 

Instinctively he raised a shaky hand and the human’s body turned a glowing orange that was identical to his newest feature. He raised his hand a little higher causing the human’s body to levitate off the ground. Slowly he brought it towards the river and as gently as he could he lowered the body into the turbulent waters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am... am I a bad person for making Papyrus a bad person?


	2. Need to Get Stronger

After letting go he stood up and they both watched as the small human’s body was carried downstream. When it was out of sight he walked over to the red patch of snow and pushed a fresh mound of snow on top of it, masking the evidence of his sin. He didn’t cry at all. He thought he would, but he didn’t. Actually, he didn’t feel much of anything. 

Papyrus felt his eye return to normal and he let out a sigh of relief. 

**“See? Was that so bad?”** It WAS bad, and he wanted to scream at Chara for suggesting otherwise. He fists clutched tightly at his sides.

Sensing his anger Chara quickly said, **“I’m sorry Papyrus, but it was necessary. It had to be done or people would get suspicious. You KNOW what would happen if these monsters knew you had absorbed a human soul right?”** Papyrus shook his head in the negative and Chara elaborated, **“If they found out you got a human soul they will kill you and take it for themselves.”**

Chara was lying. They knew monsters wouldn’t need to kill Papyrus to get their soul, but they were willing to bet that Papyrus didn’t know that. 

They were right, and Papyrus looked like he might cry again. 

**“I’m afraid the other monsters will find out about us eventually. Don’t worry though, I have a plan, but first why don’t you go home and get some rest?”**  
Papyrus nodded his head and began walking home.

When he stepped through his front door he immediately headed for the kitchen to get some spaghetti out of the fridge. Just as he opened the fridge his brother’s voice rang out from behind him, “hey bro, how did fighting the human go? you were gone for a while.” 

Papyrus turned around to see his brother slumped lazily on the couch looking at him. He hesitated and for a brief moment he contemplated telling Sans the truth but the voice in his mind told him not to because it would put his brother in danger if he knew. So he lied. 

“The human never showed up! I guess they were just too intimidated by The Great Papyrus!” These weren’t his words. Chara was the one whispering what he should say to him. He turned back to the fridge and grabbed the plate of spaghetti. He walked to the couch, sat down next to his brother, and turned on the TV to his favorite MTT program. Listening to Mettaton’s voice always calmed him down when he felt stressed. 

Papyrus suddenly felt eyes on him and noticed his brother was staring at him. He shot his brother a questioning look. 

“are you okay papy?” Papyrus froze when he heard the concern in his brother’s voice.

“Of course I’m alright, brother! Wh-why do you ask?”

“uh… i dunno, i guess you just seemed a little less energetic than usual. you haven’t even told me to pick up my sock yet.”

Chara immediately began feeding him what he should say. “I guess I’m just a little disappointed that the human didn’t show up. Maybe they didn’t like my puzzles.”

“that’s crazy bro, you’re the greatest remember? everyone loves your puzzles.” 

“Nyeh heh heh! You’re right brother!”

Papyrus jumped off the couch. “Perhaps they will show up tomorrow! I’m going to go get some rest so I’m ready to battle them and prove to Undyne that I’m ready for the Royal Guard position.” Sans gave him a thumbs up as he turned to trudge up the stairs.

Once he closed his bedroom door a massive wave of guilt consumed him. What was he doing? This was all wrong. He almost never lied to his brother, and he knew he was a crummy liar and yet he was suddenly able to lie to his brother in such a convincing manner. Tears began to well up in his eye sockets again. 

**“It’s okay Papyrus; just remember you are doing this for his own safety.”**

Papyrus nodded as he turned off the light and hopped into bed. 

“You said you had a plan?” he asked Chara as he pulled the covers over himself.

**“Oh yes, but it requires you getting a bit stronger to achieve. You see… because you have my soul you can cross the barrier and that means we can get out of here and be free on the surface!”**

“Wowie! Can Sans come too?”

**“Uh… sure.”**

He had always wanted to see the surface, and he knew his brother had a strong desire to see the real stars in the sky. Papyrus was a little excited by the possibilities.

After their conversation Papyrus fell into an uneasy sleep that was periodically interrupted with frightening images of a small deceased human.


	3. Dog Fight

When he woke up the next morning he quickly exited the house before his brother could get up and ask where he was heading. Papyrus began walking automatically towards his sentry station. 

“You said I need to get stronger before we head for the barrier. How do we do that?” he asked Chara. 

**“I know you’re not going to like it, but you need to gain a little more LV.”**

Papyrus came to an abrupt stop. “What!? No! I would need to hurt more people to do that, and I don’t think I could do that again.”

 **“You must! You will die if you don’t. Do you think Sans will let the other monsters hurt you to get my soul? No. He will try to stop them and you know he only has 1 HP. He will die trying to protect you. You must get stronger so you can protect him and go to the surface!”**

Papyrus whimpered unsure of what he should do. 

**“Look, you only need to fight the next monster until they have low health. No need to kill them alright?”**

“Oh, okay…”

As they walked down a particularly secluded path Papyrus noticed Lesser Dog in the distance bounding towards him barking happily. 

**“Now’s your chance! Strike him down!”**

Papyrus didn’t hesitate. Betraying Lesser Dog’s trust, he materialized a bone behind his back and as soon as Lesser Dog came into range he threw it at the dog. The bone took Lesser Dog by surprise and he had no time to get out of the way. The bone smashed into the dog and it fell into the snow bank. The dog wasn’t moving but it hadn’t turned to dust so he knew he hadn’t killed it.

**“Finish it.”**

“No! You said we didn’t need to kill anyone!” 

**“How do you think this all works? We need the EXP to get more LV and we need the LV to get out of here! EXP comes from killing monsters. FINISH IT!”**

Papyrus flinched at Chara’s sudden change in tone but he stood his ground. “No… No, I won’t do it!” he shouted. 

**“Then I shall do it for you.”**

Papyrus realized he couldn’t move. What was happening to him!? Suddenly Papyrus’s arm rose involuntarily and the same bone attack he used to kill the human was now shooting through the ground. It skewered Lesser Dog and the dog instantly burst into dust with a yelp of pain. His arm dropped limply to his side and he fell to his knees once more as he stared in shock at Lesser Dog’s dust being blown around by the wind. He was in control again so he stood up slowly and staggered past the dust.

**“It was necessary.”**

“Yes, I know.” He felt indifferent. Maybe it was because of the shock, or maybe it was because he had gained another LV. He didn’t know and now he didn’t care. 

He was quickly coming up on Doggo’s sentry station. Instead of walking in front of the station where Doggo could see him he walked around to the back of it so that Doggo had his back to him. He glared at Doggo. How was it possible that a monster that could barely see got accepted into the Royal Guard when he, a monster with perfect vision, had been denied? The oblivious, partially blind mutt was none the wiser as Papyrus summoned a large bone into his red gloved hands. Gripping it tightly he swung with all his might. The bone smashed into Doggo’s skull dusting him as soon as it made contact. 

**“Wow! You got him in one hit!”** Chara was very pleased with how this was turning out. Papyrus was a strong monster and they were happy to help him unleash his full potential. 

Papyrus didn’t respond to Chara’s comment and continued down the path. By the time he got to his sentry station he had killed the entire Royal Guard Dog Squad. 

Greater Dog was easy. He spotted the large dog standing next to a cliff and he only needed to simply toss a bone at his back to get him to fall off the ledge. Dogamy and Dogaressa were much tougher. 

He had never fought two monsters at once before and his surprise bone attack on Dogaressa had only injured the female dog. They were closing in on him fast swinging their large axes wildly, which caused Papyrus to fall down. Just before Dogamy swung his axe down on him he used his magic to grab Dogaressa and pull her in front of Dogamy’s blade. The axe cut Dogaressa in half and Dogamy fell into the dust of his former partner. 

Dogamy gasped and dropped his axe to the ground as he crawled away from the dust pile. He was frantically attempting to brush the dust off himself. “No!” he barked. “How… Why? Why are you doing this Papyrus? I loved her! How could you?” Papyrus didn’t have an answer. Actually, he was a little mad at himself. By allowing Dogamy to kill Dogaressa he didn’t get any of Dogaressa’s EXP. He had wasted valuable time so he just quickly dispatched the unarmed Dogamy. 

He didn’t notice that his scarf had been pulled off during the fight and was currently buried in a pile of dust.

Now Papyrus was sitting at his sentry station with a smile on his face like nothing had happened between the time he left his home and the time he got to his station


	4. Selective Memory

About an hour later he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps crunching on the fresh snow. He was about to materialize a bone into his hand when suddenly Sans rounded the corner. 

Excited to see his brother he stood up and said, “Hello brother! Are you here to stop being lazy and recalibrate your traps?” 

“heh... naw bro, my word search puzzle is fine where it is.” Sans scratched the side of skull and looked up at him. “i actually came here to ask you somethin’. have you seen anyone from the dog squad? grillby hasn’t seen any of them all day and is a little worried so i told him i’d keep an eye socket out for them.” 

Papyrus was genuinely surprised. “What! Dog Squad is missing? We must go looking for them immediately! No one can hide from The Great Papyrus for very long!”

Sans’ smile grew at his brother’s enthusiasm to help his friends. “it’s cool bro, i’m sure they’re fine and haven’t gone barking up the wrong tree. you keep doing what you’re doing. just call me on my cell if you happen to see them.” 

Papyrus nodded vigorously and watched as Sans strolled out of sight. 

**“Wow, you’re really good at this.”**

“Good at what?” he asked the disembodied voice. 

**“Good at pretending you didn’t kill those dumb dogs, duh.”**

Papyrus frowned and furrowed his brow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen any dogs all day.” 

Chara remained silent. The skeleton man didn’t remember killing all those monsters? Hmm… It must be some kind of defense mechanism? Perhaps the stress of killing his former friends on his psyche was causing him to forget his murdering spree in an effort to protect is dumb little mind from breaking. If Chara was corporeal right now they would be grinning. They could work with this. 

**“Uh… Forget about it.”**

Papyrus just smiled and nodded his head.

When Papyrus got home that evening from his patrol he found that nobody was home, so he decided to go see if Sans was at Grillby’s. He didn’t really like Grillby’s, the food was too greasy and they didn’t have any spaghetti. He might not have liked the food at Grillby’s but he did like Grillby a lot. He was very kind to his brother and often let him eat there for free sometimes… at least he was pretty sure Grillby knew Sans never intended to pay his tab. 

As soon as he walked into Grillby’s he felt extremely uneasy. The bar was nearly completely empty except for three individuals standing at the actual bar. 

Sans, Undyne, and Grillby were standing by the bar with their heads bowed and they were talking in hushed voices. When Undyne looked up she saw Papyrus and looked alarmed. 

“Dude, you’re still alive!?” She shouted. The other two snapped their heads in his direction. 

Confused Papyrus said, “Of course I’m alive Undyne, why wouldn’t I be?” He walked over to the counter.

“Sans just found dust piles that seem to have belonged to the entire Royal Guard Dog Squad. A human has been killing off monsters left and right! After he alerted us he went looking for you but you were gone from your post.” Papyrus looked at Sans who hadn’t said anything yet. Despite his fixed smile he noticed his small skeleton brother’s eye sockets were completely devoid of light. Sans turned and walked up to him. Gently Sans reached up and hugged him tightly around the middle. 

“i thought you were dead paps.” Sans whispered. 

Papyrus was surprised at first by the sudden display of affection, this was extremely uncharacteristic of his brother, but he recovered quickly and bent over so he could he wrap his bony arms around his beloved brother.

“i found your scarf in a pile of dust… i was so certain you had died when i couldn’t find you at your station.” Sans pulled his scarf from his pockets and Papyrus instantly raised a hand to his neck only to find it was bare. 

“Oh brother, it must have blown off when I was recalibrating my traps! I’m so sorry to have worried you.” He grabbed the scarf from Sans’ hand and rewrapped it around his neck. “You said you just found these dust piles? Perhaps we just missed each other when I left my sentry station to head home. Why didn’t you try calling me?” 

“i did bro, so did undyne.” 

Papyrus started patting his pockets looking for his cell phone. He realized that when he rushed out of the house this morning he had completely forgotten to take it with him. When Papyrus told them this Undyne gave him a grumpy look and said, “Papyrus why would you leave your house without your communication device? This is exactly why all the guards and sentries are required to have them! If you want to ever get into the Royal Guard you had better shape up!” 

Papyrus felt a sudden spike of unexpected rage at Undyne’s words. He blinked quickly wondering where that came from and rubbed his hands over his face so they couldn’t see his expression. He realized this looked really odd so he started crying. He wasn’t crying because he was sad, he was crying because it was necessary. They would start to think there was something wrong with him if he didn’t cry. And there WAS nothing wrong with him right? He had felt a little dizzy all day but other than that he was fine. 

He heard Undyne walk over to him and felt her pull him into her strong arms. “I’m sorry Papyrus. I guess we are all just a little sad and angry over the loss of Dog Squad.”  
Papyrus just nodded and forced himself to give her a reassuring smile. “Maybe when we find the human we can convince them not to do the violent things anymore.”  
Papyrus felt very guilty because of the violent things he did to the human yesterday. 

Speaking of the human, if the human he killed yesterday was gone did that mean there was a new human killing all his dog friends? Papyrus felt like he was missing something but shrugged it off as just being a bit upset by the current events. 

“Well for now we need to split into groups and locate the human. Alphys says she hasn’t seen them on any of her cameras and all the murders happened outside of their view.” Undyne pointed to Sans and Grillby. “You two go to Hotland and Papyrus and I will look in Waterfall.” They all nodded in agreement. Sans and Grillby left out the back door, no doubt to use one of his brother’s short cuts. That just left him and Undyne… Alone.


	5. His Sadness is Gone

Undyne grabbed her Royal Guard helmet off the counter and slammed it onto her head. “You ready to go Papyrus?” she asked. Papyrus told her that he needed to go grab his cellphone from his room first and that he would be back in a jiffy. Undyne agreed and told him to hurry his butt up or she was leaving without him.

When he walked outside he rubbed his temple in frustration. He didn’t feel so good and it was starting to scare him. 

“Ch-chara?” 

**“Yeah?”**

“Is there something wrong with me?” Papyrus asked as he opened the door to his home and went inside.

 **“What makes you think that there’s something wrong with you?”**

“When Undyne told me the Royal Guard Dog Squad had been murdered I didn’t feel sad. They were some of my best friends! We used to play fetch all the time, they would throw me a bone and I would run on all fours trying to catch the bone in my mouth.” Papyrus smiled fondly at the memory as he started climbing the stairs that led up to the second floor of his home. 

“So… So how come I don’t feel sad that they’re dead?”

**“It’s probably the LV that’s making you stronger. Being sad over things you can’t change is for the weak. It’s such a useless thing.”**

Papyrus disagreed but didn’t say anything. There was something much more important he needed to ask.

“Speaking of LV, I noticed I had gained more of it since the beginning of the day. But don’t remember how.” 

Chara remained silent. Papyrus wasn’t as stupid as he looked and they knew that there was no way Papyrus could be missing the connection between the increase of his LV and the death of Dog Squad. However, it would seem that Papyrus’s mind simply won’t let him accept the knowledge that he had killed all those monsters. It was very odd, and Chara has never had to deal with something like this before. Frisk always remembered everything and never tried to deny any of their wrong doing. Papyrus was different, and Chara couldn’t decide if this development was a good thing or a bad thing. 

Even though Papyrus was unnerved by Chara’s silence, he couldn’t help feeling a little bit excited about getting to go on such an important mission with Undyne. He wished that it was under better circumstances, but he felt that maybe he would finally be able to prove his worth to her. 

He quickly grabbed the phone from his desk and ran down the stairs and out the door. Undyne was waiting outside his front door with her helmet under her arm. She looked him up and down and frowned for a brief moment. “I wish we had more time so I could take you to the Royal Guard HQ to get you outfitted in better armor.” Her mouth widened into an enormous grin. “Maybe after this is all over I’ll order some proper armor for you!” 

Papyrus’s eye sockets nearly tripled in size and sparkled with excitement. “Wowie! You really mean that Undyne? Nyeh heh heh! Finally, some armor that is truly worthy of The Great Papyrus!” 

“Fuhuhu! That doesn’t mean you’re in the Royal Guard but perhaps with some new armor we can train a little harder and get you closer to that goal.” She paused for a moment before saying, “I don’t know what it is but you seem stronger than usual.” She turned away from him and jammed the helmet back onto her head. 

That last sentence caused Papyrus’s excitement to die a little bit. Was it possible that Undyne sensed his increased LV? Monsters generally couldn’t see another monster’s LV unless they are standing in the Hall of Judgment located within Asgore’s castle… Papyrus attempted to shrug off the crippling guilt he felt but it was getting difficult to ignore. 

Papyrus put on a brave smile and marched after Undyne. 

At first their search for the human in Waterfall was completely uneventful and Papyrus was enjoying the tranquil ambiance that Waterfall was famous for. They passed one of Sans’ telescopes and Papyrus paused to run his hand along the side of it. He was going to get Sans to surface no matter what so he could see the real stars. With that promise they pushed on until they came upon a little yellow birdy that was chirping excitedly at Undyne. 

“Papyrus, you go on ahead I’m going to take this bird over to the other side and speak with Gerson. I’ll catch up to you in a bit.”

“Okey-doke Undyne! Um… will that little bird be able to carry you across that gap?”

“Don’t let his size fool you, he’s a little champ!” 

Papyrus watched as the teacup sized bird latched onto Undyne and lifted her into the air. Papyrus could tell it was struggling to lift her in her heavy armor because it began sweating and wheezing as it frantically flapped its little wings. Papyrus laughed and waved before turning around and walking off in the opposite direction. 

“Hey Chara?”

**“What?”**

“What’s the first thing you want to do when we get to the surface?”

Chara was thrown off by the question. They couldn’t very well tell Papyrus that the first thing they wanted to do was destroy mankind, so they lied. 

**“I’m going to eat a big bar of chocolate.”**

“Chocolate?”

**“Yeah, it’s my favorite food.”**

A big smile crossed Papyrus’s face. “Well then, I guess when we get to the surface I’ll just have to make you some chocolate flavored spaghetti!” 

Chara wanted to gag. Not just because chocolate flavored spaghetti sounded gross as hell, but because this whole conversation was gross as hell. It was so sappy it made Chara want to barf. Chara didn’t want to think about Papyrus making plans for a future that won’t exist. To make themselves feel better Chara had Papyrus kill a Temmie because damn, those things sure did annoy the crap out of Chara. 

Papyrus didn’t even need to use a bone attack he simply crushed the Temmie under his boot. It burst into dust and he continued walking down the path. He dusted a few other monsters before finally reaching a strange bridge. It was a very long bridge with many twists, turns, and dead ends. He also knew that far below the bridge was where the community dump was located, though it was too dark to see it right now. He was about to cross it when a voice rang out behind him.

“Yo! Papyrus, are you here to see Undyne capture the human too?” It was Monster Kid. The small, yellow, armless monster looked up at him with such joy it made him feel… nothing. 

**“Looks like free EXP.”**

He took a step forward and glared at the small child. 

Sensing something was wrong Monster Kid’s eyes grew wide and he stammered, “Wh-what’s that look for?” Papyrus attempted to reach out and grab Monster Kid but they moved out of his reach. “H-hey! St-stop no!” The child tried to run backwards away from Papyrus but he tripped and fell. The small monster managed to grab the edge of the bridge with his teeth, but he was dangling dangerously above the dark abyss and he could already feel his grip slipping. He cried for help as Papyrus approached him.

Papyrus raised his boot ready to kick the small monster off the bridge.

He was just about to bring the boot down on Monster Kid’s head when a bright flash of blue and an intense pain in his side caused him to stagger away from the child. Looking down he saw a blue magical spear sticking out of him. It really hurt. He grasped it in his red gloved hands and yanked it out. He let out a cry of pain but managed to extract the spear from himself. He tossed it to the side and looked up.

Undyne was standing before him with the small, trembling monster child in her arms.


	6. The Fall of Two Great Warriors

“Papyrus, what the hell is wrong with you!?” He couldn’t see Undyne’s expression because of her helmet, but he could tell from the tone of her voice she was angry… and perhaps a little _scared._

Papyrus blinked and bowed his head in shame. “I-I’m sorry Undyne, I don’t know what came over me.”

Ignoring the weak apology Undyne turned around, placed Monster Kid on his feet, and put her hands on his shoulders. 

“Kid, you need to leave! Run home and don’t look ba-“

-BAM!-

A bone slammed into the back of Undyne’s head sending her helmet flying into the air. It dropped with loud clang on the wooden bridge before rolling off the edge and plunging into the all-consuming darkness below them. Monster Kid screamed in fear and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him away from the two armored monsters. 

The time for lying and deceiving was over. The time for Undyne to perish has begun. 

Papyrus had thrown the bone as soon as Undyne had turned her back to him. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have left her backside vulnerable. It’s amazing that she still trusted him enough to show him her back after what she had just seen. He made sure to demonstrate to her what a mistake that was. 

Undyne rubbed the back of her head where the bone stuck and turned to look at the skeleton in disbelief. The disbelief quickly turned to anger as she materialized a magic spear into her hand. “Papyrus!” Undyne snarled, “What is your major malfunction?” 

“You want to know what my problem is Undyne?” Papyrus’s right eye flared orange and he took a step forward. 

“My problem is that I know you never intended to let me into to the Royal Guard! You have always thought that I was too weak and stupid to join. Not only that but you have decided to hurt me over and over again by dangling the carrot in front of my face just to rip it away repeatedly!” 

“That’s not true! I’ve always thought you were tough, I just didn’t think you had it in you to hurt another person if you needed to.” Undyne looked a bit sad before saying, “I guess I was wrong, huh?”

“Nyeh heh heh! Oh don’t worry Undyne,” Papyrus shook his head and smiled, “I’m planning on showing you just how wrong you were.” 

Papyrus threw another bone at Undyne, who deflected it with her spear, shattering the bone into hundreds of pieces. 

A flash of realization crossed Undyne’s face. “It was you, wasn’t it? You killed all those monsters. You killed Dog Squad!” She shouted. “That’s why I noticed you were getting stronger. You’ve been killing all of our god damn friends…” Undyne gripped her spear tighter and glared at her former best friend. “Papyrus, I don’t want to have to eliminate you. Please stop, you’re obviously really sick and need help, maybe Alphys can find a way to help you if you would just drop your attack and come with me.” 

Something within Papyrus faltered. He lowered the hand holding his bone attack, his other hand rose up to his skull and began rubbing it in frustration. 

Alarmed by the sudden change in the tall skeleton’s behavior, Chara chimed in, **“Don’t let her fool you, she will kill you the moment she learns you have a human soul. It’s practically her job! You know what she is capable of.”**

Papyrus shuttered but raised his hand holding his bone attack back into fighting position. Seeing this Undyne sighed and said, “I’m sorry I have to do this Papyrus, but I want you to know that after this is over I promise to look after your brother for you, I know that’s something you would want me to do.”

Undyne’s red hair waved in the gentle breeze that blew through Waterfall, and with the look of firm determination solidified onto her face she raised her spear and lunged at Papyrus. 

Spear and bone clashed together and began an unholy dance for domination. Papyrus and Undyne were both pushing with all their might trying to gain some kind of leverage. Eventually Papyrus’s bone cracked under the force of Undyne’s spear, but before the bone could break Papyrus disengaged and rolled out of the way. This caused Undyne to fumble forward. Taking advantage of Undyne’s fumble, Papyrus hooked his boot around her ankle and tripped her. Undyne was forced into a roll in order to avoid the bone Papyrus was currently swinging in a downward arch. 

Undyne attempted to lunge at Papyrus again but Papyrus summoned a blue bone attack and threw it at her. Because Undyne was moving during a blue attack she was hit directly by the summoned bone. She cringed at the pain but powered through it sending a barrage of spears in Papyrus’s direction. It took a lot of effort to dodge all the spears that were raining from the sky and Papyrus was required to smack a few of them out of the way with his bone. A few grazed him but it was nothing major. 

Neither of them noticed that their battle was causing a major strain to the bridge beneath their feet. 

Papyrus decided it was time to end this. He conjured a second bone into his other hand and began a duel bone attack, striking ferociously at Undyne’s defenses. 

Undyne knew she couldn’t withstand Papyrus’s attack for much longer, so with all her strength she summoned spears below Papyrus. Papyrus managed to push himself away from Undyne and her attack but the bridge was not so fortunate. With a sharp CRACK the portion of bridge below Papyrus’s feet began to fall away. 

With a gasp Papyrus relinquished his hold on his bones and scrambled to maintain balance on his disintegrating platform. 

The wood broke away and he was falling. In a last ditch effort he shot his arm up and grabbed onto the stable part of the bridge that Undyne was standing on. Dangling above darkness he attempted to lift himself back up onto the bridge but he was just too exhausted from their battle. Looking up at the heroic fish woman he cried, “Help me Undyne! I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I’m really scared! ” 

Papyrus raised his hand towards her, “Oh God Undyne, please help me!” 

Swearing under her breath Undyne launched herself forward grasping Papyrus’s hand. As she began pulling him up she looked at his face and what she saw would surely haunt her dreams. His eyes were completely black and his mouth was twisted into a sinister grin. She knew what was coming and there was no way to stop it. Papyrus squeezed Undyne’s hand tight and pulled her towards him as he let go of his grasp on the bridge. 

They both tumbled into the dark miasma below.


	7. Papyrus is Dead

Something cold and wet was dripping on Papyrus’s face. He groaned and opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, but it only took a moment to focus in on what was causing the wet sensation on his face. Snowflakes were cascading gradually down from above and landing all around him. Slowly he sat himself up and took in his surroundings. He appeared to be sitting in a large pile of snow and he could see Grillby’s in the distance. Weird, wasn’t he just in Waterfall? Maybe he took a nap and only dreamed he was at Waterfall, but why would he take a nap outside and in the middle of Snowedin? That sounds like something his brother would do. Warily he got to his feet and started walking towards the establishment. The area was completely silent save for the crunching of snow under his boots. 

As he got closer to Grillby’s he could hear laughter, music, and the clanging of eating utensils. It was exactly the sort of ambient noise you would expect to hear from a busy bar. Papyrus peered through one of the windows but what he saw was impossible. The entire Royal Guard Dog Squad was sitting in the bar laughing and playing poker. Papyrus could see a few other monsters in there as well! There was even a Temmie sleeping on the bar counter which Papyrus thought was strange considering Temmies generally didn’t leave Waterfall very often. He also found it rather odd that Grillby himself was nowhere to be seen.

He walked over to the door and pulled it open. The jingle of the bell above the door announced his presence to the entire bar and everyone turned to look at him. The atmosphere took an instant nosedive. The music stopped, the laughter stopped, and the clanging of eating utensils stopped. It all just stopped. It was drop dead silent. Not wanting to continue making things awkward, Papyrus walked over to Dog Squad and said, “Wowie! I thought you guys were dead!” which was honestly an incredibly awkward thing to say in and of itself. 

Dogamy was the first to speak. In a very calm voice he said, “Papyrus, we ARE dead.” 

Baffled Papyrus stuttered, “N-no! Y-you’re not dead! I can see you right now!” 

This time Dogaressa was the one to speak. “We are all dead Papyrus, and you killed us!”

“Th-that’s not true! I wouldn’t do that, I’m not that kind of person! I wouldn’t hurt anyone!” 

“But you did kill us Papyrus.” The whole bar was chanting in unison, “You’re a murder Papyrus.”

“No! NO! NOOOOO!! IT’S NOT TRUE!!! IT’S NOT TRUUUUUEEEEE!” He screamed and screamed. 

Suddenly all the bar patrons began exploding into dust before his very eyes. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” he cried, squeezing his eye sockets shut as tightly as he could and covered the sides of his head with his hands in an effort to block out the cries of dying monsters. After what felt like hours he finally opened his eyes to find that he was surrounded by large mounds of dust and a lone figure was standing a few paces away from him. 

The figure appeared to be comprised entirely of red energy. If papyrus had to describe it he would say it looked a lot like electricity. It was red, jagged, and completely unstable looking but it stood in the shape of a small human. The small human he had killed? No. This one was different. It was holding a knife in its little hands and it was leering at him. Papyrus felt dread throughout his entire being. 

“W-who are you?”

The ugly creature grinned unkindly and laughed. The laugher sent shivers of fear down Papyrus’s spine. Before Papyrus could react, the creature dashed forward raising its knife wielding hand. He could only gasp as the sharp knife sliced through his neck decapitating him in one effortless motion. 

Before he died he heard the entity whisper, **“I’ll help you.”** The voice was cruel and unforgiving. As his vision faded to black he could hear horrific laughter. 

Papyrus awoke with a jolt to a scene of pure chaos. The first thing he noticed was that he was laying in about a half a foot of water and that the wet stuff that he had felt on his face wasn’t snowflakes but droplets of water that were dripping from a garbage pile that loomed high above him. The second thing he noticed was that Chara was screaming hysterically at him. **“WAKE UP! WAKE UP YOU STUPID SKELETON, SHE’S GOING TO FUCKING KILL US YOU FOOL!”** The third thing he noticed was that Undyne was running at him full speed with her spear lowered. He noticed all these things within the span of about 5 seconds. That didn’t exactly leave him much time to react. 

Undyne was about two feet away from him when he was finally able to gather himself. Even then what happened next was a complete accident. He cried out in terror and thrust his hands outward in a pathetic effort to push Undyne away from himself. Lucky for him his magic activated, latched onto Undyne, and tossed her away from him and towards a particularly jagged looking garbage pile. There was a sickening crunch sound from where she landed, and from what he could tell Undyne was no longer moving. Trembling, he got to his feet and cautiously made his way over to her resting place.

It was not a pretty sight. Actually, it was the most brutal thing Papyrus had ever seen. Undyne had been tossed into a pile of rebar which impaled her in two locations. One piece of rebar went through her knee and the other had priced her chest. The worst part was that she was still alive. 

She appeared extraordinarily calm as Papyrus approached. Undyne struggled to open her mouth, but when she did she said, “H-hey pu-punk…” She gave him an exhausted smile and continued, “I ju-just wanted to say I’m so-sorry f-for hurting you. Sorry for not t-telling you that I didn’t intend on le-letting you join the R-Roy… Royal Guard.” 

Papyrus just nodded his head and grabbed Undyne by her shoulders. At first it seemed like he was going to try and pull her off the rebar. Instead however, he shoved her further down the rod until she screamed and crumbled to dust. He brushed the dust off himself and hopped back down into the disgusting garbage dump water. 

Papyrus was dead.

Chara knew that with this chunk of EXP he had gained enough LV for Chara to corrupt him on the deepest level. The way Chara worked was rather simple. As their host gains LV, not only are they able to inflict harm on others more easily, they also become more susceptible to Chara’s influence. Right now Papyrus was their very own skeleton puppet to do with as they pleased. They weren’t level 20 yet though, but they were getting close. As of right now Papyrus was dead but not forgotten. He still maintained a shadow of his former self, but Chara aimed to destroy that soon too. 

There was however a small hitch in Chara’s plan. They hadn’t even realized it until Papyrus let go of the damn bridge. Not once since Chara entered Papyrus’s body had they passed any kind of a save point. Not only that, but Chara couldn’t access the restart ability. That meant they have no way of saving their progress and no way of restarting this whole thing. Chara supposed they needed Frisk in order to have access to those abilities. This could be good thing or a bad thing. On one hand if they make it to the surface, the death of mankind will be permanent. On the other hand if they die, they will die permanently. Chara ultimately concluded that as long as they played it safe they could be victorious. 

Right now however, Papyrus was badly damaged and would require food as soon as possible. He was battered and bruised, yes bones can bruise, and right now he had a boatload of bruises littering his body. He didn’t remember what happened, but Chara told him he had tripped and fell from the bridge. He found a cooler with some snacks in it and gobbled them down. It didn’t taste as good as spaghetti, but he couldn’t be a picky eater with how hurt he was right now. 

They didn’t notice that just a little further down the cavern was a training dummy that was currently having a total freak out. Mad Dummy had seen EVERYTHING! They witnessed the freaky skeleton murder Undyne in such a gruesome way. They knew that they would surely be next on the chopping block if they didn’t get the hell out of here! Physical attacks might not hurt them, but magic bone attacks absolutely would! Thinking quickly they remembered their cousin Napstablook had connections. Maybe Blooky could help! 

As soon as they saw Papyrus marching towards them, they let out a long stream of swear words and abandoned their training dummy body for the safety of their cousin’s house. Chara was quite pleased. The situation must be pretty fucked up if Mad Dummy abandoned his body out of fear!. 

When they were finally at the edge of Waterfall Chara said, **“Hey, I think we should go to Hotland.”**

“Why?”

Ugh. Despite having a deep influence over Papyrus’s actions, it would seem that his weird memory malfunction thingy was preserving his innocence and that allowed him continue to ask questions despite being given a direct order. If he were Frisk, they would not be speaking at all right now and would have done exactly what they were ordered to do without question. It wasn’t a major issue, as long as Chara had control during fights everything should turn out just fine. It was just extremely irritating that they needed to baby Papyrus to get him to go where they needed to go. 

**“We should go see how Grillby and your brother are doing.”**

“Shouldn’t we wait for Undyne?”

**“Naw, she will figure it out and follow us later. Don’t you want to see your brother? You can tell him all about surviving such an epic fall!”**

“Nyeh! You’re right that was pretty epic, and only someone as awesome as me could survive such a thing! But first let me text Undyne about where she can find us.” 

As Papyrus was tapping away at his phone, Chara noticed one of Alphys’s cameras in the distance. At first it meant nothing to them, but a sick realization slowly dawned on Chara. They must have passed at least three of Alphys’s cameras during their battle with Undyne… Oh shit. Alphys probably saw Papyrus attack Undyne, and if she saw what happened she has probably already contacted Sans. Their element of surprise was gone and they needed to get moving right now! 

As if on cue, Papyrus’s phone began to ring.


	8. A War Hero Emerges

He looked at the caller ID and wasn’t surprised to see it was Sans. Papyrus hastily opened his flip phone and held it to his skull.

He was happy to hear from his brother, and hopefully their search for the violent human was more fruitful than his! 

However, as soon as Sans started talking his demeanor changed.

“hey bro, uh… what’s up?”

Papyrus gave no response.

“yeah, that’s what i figured… listen paps, alphys told me she saw you fighting undyne. she… she said she might have seen you kill her.” 

Papyrus remained silent.

“heh... look, if you wanted fish kebobs so badly i would have just taken you to grillby’s.”

“…”

“sorry, that was a pretty tasteless joke… listen, i’m not going to pretend that i know what’s goin’ on but i’ll find you and we can get you some help okay?”

Papyrus walked over to one of Alphys’s cameras and stood directly in front of it.

“j-just remember bro that i love you no matter wh-“

With a completely blank face he snapped the phone in half and tossed the useless parts to the ground. 

It was a message. A message that Alphys and Sans received loud and clear.

Papyrus was no longer on their side.

Chara was a little surprised how emotional Sans sounded on the phone. The usually calm and collected smaller skeleton sounded distressed. It was understandable though, this sort of timeline had never happened before and all bets were off as to how it will pan out. Chara was determined though, and they knew exactly what they wanted and how they will go about getting it. They wondered exactly how Sans will handle a battle to the death with his beloved brother. Chara giggled at the thought. 

They carried on past the electronic sign that welcomed them to Hotland and entered into the fiery cavern. Papyrus was glad to be somewhere warm. He had been feeling strangely cold lately and was really enjoying these hot temperatures on his bones. The first thing Papyrus saw was one of Sans’ sentry posts unattended. Usually he would have nagged at his brother to do his duties but considering the circumstances he supposed there was nothing anyone could do about it right now. He headed for Alphys’s laboratory because he figured that’s where Grillby and his brother would be so that they could use Alphys’s cameras to track the human’s movements. 

As he approached the lab he saw someone leaning against the laboratory door smoking a cigarette. It was Grillby, and it looked like he was waiting for someone. When Grillby spotted Papyrus he stood up a little straighter, flicked his cigarette to the ground, and crossed his arms. 

Papyrus smiled and shouted, “Hey Grillby! Is my brother inside?”

“No.” 

Despite his fiery, unstable exterior, Grillby’s voice was as calm and cool as can be. 

Being made of nothing but fire meant Grillby didn’t exactly have the most readable features but the elemental monster cocked his head to the side and Papyrus had an eerie feeling that his every move was being analyzed.

“Can you tell me where he is then?” 

“You made a mistake coming here.” 

“Wha-?” Grillby cut him off.

“I volunteered to stay behind and stall you while the others escaped.” 

Chara was curious, so the creepy flame monster wants to fight? They’ve never encountered a timeline where he ever so much as blew an ember in their direction. Very interesting. Papyrus on the other hand was actually quite nervous. There were rumors that Grillby had fought in the war between human and monsters as a powerful general. Papyrus wasn’t about to underestimate this old war hero.

“I’m giving you the opportunity to turn around and leave, and I’m not going to give you this opportunity again so choose wisely.” Grillby shifted into a more aggressive stance.

Since the fire monster was already being so chatty, Chara’s curiosity got the better of them and they forced Papyrus to ask Grillby why he was so determined to stay and fight.

Grillby clenched his fists and said, “I have people to protect… My daughter goes to school up ahead and I am certain that just letting you go will put them in danger.”

Papyrus remembered being shown a photo of Grillby’s daughter once. She was a very pretty green fire monster who was currently getting ready to graduate from high school. 

“Nyeh heh heh! Thanks for the information. I guess I know where I’m going after I’m done dealing with you.” It was a lie, he actually didn’t have any interest in the school he just wanted to rile Grillby up. 

Boy, was that a mistake. 

Grillby snarled and opened his… maw? Yikes. No wonder the guy never talk much, his mouth was terrifying! It was jagged and oozed a molten substance. Grillby jabbed the palm of his hand towards Papyrus and launched a fireball out of it. Not wanting to get cremated just yet Papyrus dodged the fireball. Even though the fireball missed he could feel the intense heat that it had produced and realized just how dangerous this fight was going to be.

Papyrus threw a bone at Grillby’s head but the fire monster just created a hole in his head for the bone to pass through. Papyrus tossed a dozen more bones but it all ended with the same result. Chara felt panicked, what where they going to do if Papyrus can’t even hit him with his bones?

Grillby opened his oral cavity wide and spewed out a strong flame, not completely unlike a flamethrower. Papyrus barely had enough time to get out of the way and even got a little singed. 

**“Try throwing him off the side with your magic.”**

They instantly complied with Chara’s demand but regretted doing so. Papyrus used his magic to throw Grillby into the lava pit below and for a moment it seemed to work… In hindsight it was pretty obvious what happened next. Grillby used the lava to push himself back up to their platform. 

Grillby growled and said, “Do you really think you can beat me in my own domain?” 

Chara was struck with an idea. Grillby was right this was his domain, so perhaps they need to bring him to a domain that he couldn’t draw power from. 

**“Lure him into Waterfall.”**

It was worth a shot. Papyrus dodged backward and occasionally tossed a bone at Grillby to keep him distracted and unaware of their plan. They passed a water-cooler and Papyrus used his magic to throw it at Grillby. The fire monster hissed in pain as the jug broke and spilled all over him. The pain only served to increase his anger. He shot a massive fireball that caught Papyrus in the chest and blasted him backwards. Papyrus quickly got back to his feet but he was pretty hurt. Frightened, he began limping as fast as he could away from the inferno monster. They ran past the welcome to Hotland sign, which exploded and melted from the intense heat, and finally they were back in Waterfall. 

Papyrus knew he was losing this fight and he had to do something soon! When they came across a small river Papyrus used his magic to once again toss Grillby into the air. There was an awful hissing noise as Grillby was plunged into the shallow water. He watched as Grillby managed to crawl back onto the river bank, but it was far too late for the flame monster. He was drenched and his flames were rapidly going out.

Before he was completely extinguished he growled at Papyrus, “Tell your bother it seems he doesn’t need to pay his fucking tab.” 

And with that, Grillby was gone. The only thing left was his bar-tending uniform and a pair of glasses. 

**“Lousy cheapskate didn’t even give us any EXP.”**

Papyrus didn’t say anything. He was lying in the grass panting heavily covered in burns. Even his favorite scarf had singe marks. 

**“Whatever, I think you’re ready to go to Asgore’s Castle.”**

“Why would I want to go there?”

 **“Because I’m confident your brother will be there and then the both of you can finally escape through the barrier.”**

“Oh.”

…

“Hey Chara?”

**“Yeah?”**

“Why am I lying on the ground feeling crispier than garlic bread?”

Chara let out an exasperated sigh.


	9. Judgment Hall

Papyrus carved a trail of destruction throughout the entirety of the Underground from Hotland to Asgore’s Castle, the jovial skeleton man corrupted by darkness laid waste to all who came before him. Chara was very pleased with these results. Even if Papyrus died right now and they perish along with him, the amount of destruction they caused together would scar the Underground for eons. It was all just too easy! 

He took care of all the monsters in Hotland effortlessly, and killing Muffet was easy as butterscotch pie. As it turned out Papyrus was deathly afraid of spiders, but thanks to Chara his fear had turned to anger and he struck her down in one hit. After Hotland, he made his way through the Core and met Mettaton for the first time. The encounter with Mettaton was um… interesting. As soon as Mettaton appeared Papyrus just freaked the hell out. 

While Mettaton was trying to monologue about how he was here to stop Papyrus, Papyrus himself was shouting about how awesome it was to finally meet his TV star crush, and that Mettaton was his favorite sexy rectangle. Mettaton was clearly not expecting to be praised so highly by the monster he was sent to destroy. Mettaton stopped talking and began blushing heavily. How a robot that looked so much like a calculator managed to blush was anyone’s guess, but the fact that Papyrus managed to shut up and fluster the chatterbox was hilarious so Chara let Papyrus continue on his tirade. 

“Oh sweetheart, if you enjoy this form you will absolutely love my newest form!” Mettaton couldn’t help showing off his new body to such a dedicated fan! He flipped his switch and transformed into Mettaton EX. 

Papyrus was completely ecstatic to see Mettaton’s new body. He clapped his hands and said, “I, The Great Papyrus, would someday like to bring you some of my homemade spaghetti to enjoy and then we can go see one of those wonderful movies you starred in!”

“Um, are you asking me on a date?” Mettaton asked, clearly startled by the proposition. 

“Nyeh! I suppose so!” Papyrus’s eyes were practically twinkling with glee. 

Mettaton was seriously confused. He had heard from Mad Dummy and Blooky, that this guy was supposed to be a relentless killer, not a cute and flirtatious darling.

“Sorry Darling, I don’t date psycho killers.” 

“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a psycho-“ That’s when Chara decided it was time to end this encounter.

Papyrus’s face suddenly went blank halfway through his statement and Mettaton sensed something was wrong but didn’t have any time to react before Papyrus grabbed his shoulder and pulled him towards himself. As he jerked Mettaton forward, Papyrus materialized a bone into his other hand. He thrust the bone directly into the center of Mettaton’s pink glass soul container located in his midsection. The bone shattered the glass and struck Mettaton’s soul directly, killing him instantly. The robot didn’t turn to dust like the others. Instead he exploded, showering Papyrus with debris. 

Forcing Papyrus to kill his crush really made Chara’s soul hum with delight. How wonderful! They laughed as Papyrus trembled involuntarily as he walked past the mangled pieces of Mettaton. 

As soon as he entered the elevator that would take him to the main level of Asgore’s Castle, Papyrus snapped back to his regular self.

“Oh boy! I can’t believe I got to meet Mettaton! I can’t wait to make him some of my homemade spaghetti. Do… Do you think he’ll like it?”

Chara ignored Papyrus’s question. They were thinking about what lies ahead. 

“If we get to the surface today, would it be possible to come back down here sometime so I could deliver the spaghetti to Mettaton?” 

Chara couldn’t take it anymore. They absolutely despised the tall skeleton’s retained innocence. It served them well when they needed to get the jump on targets. By appearing so innocent before they struck a killing blow caught a lot of these dumb monsters off guard, but now it was useless. There was no way Sans will fall for that act. 

**“Will you just shut up you stupid skeleton! I’m so sick of you prattling on and on about what you’re going to do when you get to the surface.”**

Papyrus frowned at Chara’s harsh words. “I’m sorry Chara, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

**“Whatever, just focus. The next obstacle will be our greatest challenge before we leave to go to the surface.”**

“Oh? And what obstacle is that?” Papyrus asked cheerfully as he stepped out of the elevator. 

**“The elimination of your brother.”**

Papyrus jerked to stop so fast it would have given a lesser monster whiplash.

“Wh-what!?”

 **“You heard me.”** It was time to end this charade. 

“No! You promised, remember? You said he could come with us to the surface!” Papyrus was angry.

**“You will do as you are commanded.”**

“I would never hurt my brother. I would never hurt ANYONE!” 

**“HA! Stop lying to yourself Papyrus, you’ve probably killed over a hundred monsters by now.”**

“THAT’S NOT TRUE! I-it can’t be true…” Papyrus finished weakly, his voice trembled with uncertainty. Papyrus wanted to cry but the ability to do so was lost. 

“I… I WON’T!” he cried out and placed his hands to the side of his head in a futile attempt to shut Chara’s voice out. 

**“You won’t…? Hmm… How curious. You must have misunderstood,”** Chara sneered. 

**“SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?”** Chara roared inside Papyrus's skull.

Papyrus fell to the floor and his body spasmed as a battle for dominance ensued. His hands twitched and he clenched his teeth tight. Chara had never needed to fight for control before, and Papyrus was making things difficult. However, Papyrus was already too far gone. He was LV 19 and at his most susceptible. The fight was over quickly and Papyrus’s face melted into a look of pure apathy. Slowly, he got back to his feet and began walking down the path again. 

The rout to Judgment Hall was a long one. Flowey popped up but was extremely disturbed to find Chara inhabiting the tall skeleton man. Apparently Flowey had a soft spot for Papyrus. If Chara had to guess it was probably because Papyrus was kind to the soulless freak in any timeline no matter what. Asriel always was such a sissy. 

As they entered Judgment Hall Chara felt a bit nervous. Sans could quite easily kill them, but to Chara the reward was worth the risk. If they can kill Sans, Chara is planning on grabbing the 6 other human souls and make Papyrus into a god. Frisk had been a human and couldn’t absorb souls (other than their own of course!) So the other human souls had always been useless, but if they can get them into Papyrus, Chara will have total control of a god. 

The Judgment Hall was as beautiful as ever. It would be a tranquil place under better circumstances. Papyrus’s heavy footsteps echoed around the golden chamber as he marched onward. They had finally arrived and Sans was standing in his usual spot but boy, did he look worse for wear. He had his hood up and his eyes were closed in apparent meditation. His whole body was bathed in the light that leaked through the windows. He looked exhausted, but his smile remained just as fixed into place as it always has been. 

As Papyrus approached, Sans opened his eyes. 

“Hello brother! It’s so nice to see you!” Papyrus’s voice was laced with cruel sarcasm. 

“wish I could say the same to you chara.” 

Chara wasn’t surprised Sans knew it was them. They’ve done this same song and dance before. This was just a different version of the same basic principle. There have been previous timelines where Frisk had explained to Sans about Chara.

“heh… you know, before this happened i had thought frisk made you up so they had someone to pass the blame onto whenever they acted badly. i used to hate them for making up such lies to cover up their misdeeds, but now… well i guess i owe them some kind of apology.” He lowered his hood, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. 

“i don’t know how you managed to infect my brother, but i suggest you hand him over… you dirty brother stealer.” Sans’ eye sockets turned pitch black. 

“Not so fast brother! Chara doesn’t have the ability to save and reset now that Frisk is gone. If you kill me it will be permanent. However, if you don’t kill me the world will burn.” 

Sans’ eye sockets widened in shock. This timeline was vastly different from previous timelines he honestly didn’t know what to do… Well, that wasn’t true. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He clenched his fists hard and closed his eyes again. Taking another deep breath he looked up at Papyrus with his right eye socket closed and his left eye socket open. 

“bro, i made a promise a long time ago to protect you. i’m not going to hurt you no matter what.” 

“Really brother? You’re willing to die and have the world end rather than fight me?” 

“i know it’s selfish but i never claimed to be a saint.”

Chara was actually very impressed at the lengths Sans was willing to go to protect his beloved brother. 

“i’m not going to hurt you papy.”

“Nyeh heh heh heh!” The laugh was harsh and humorless. “Oh brother, I do believe that’s the _funniest_ thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Papyrus began walking towards his brother. 

“Because I _REALLY_ want to hurt _you_.”

He grasped his brother by his blue hoodie and lifted him up until his feet dangled about a foot off the ground. Papyrus wound his arm back and Sans closed his eyes once more in resignation ready for the blow to land. 

Chara was over joyed by the turn of events, but this was just too easy. Killing Sans now would be so boring. Lets’ play with him a little bit.  
Papyrus growled and punched his brother in the mandible hard and fast. Sans fell to the floor and groaned. Sans only has 1HP but Chara didn’t want him dead just yet. 

Sans’ HP dropped into the decimals.

“Before I kill you brother, I do suppose I have someone’s last wish to fulfill.” Papyrus grinned.

“Grillby wanted me to relay to you that you don’t have to pay back you’re tab.” 

Papyrus laughed and Sans gave him a look of loathing. The look wasn’t directed at his brother, but at Chara. Grillby had been one of his closest friends. Papyrus raised his arm again preparing to strike when a voice rang out from behind him. 

“I’m afraid that is incorrect!”

Surprised, Papyrus looked over his shoulder to see two figures running towards them. 

It was Grillby, and holding his hand was none other than… Frisk!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! *Throws new chapter at readers and flees*


	10. When Flames and Determination Unite

It’s dark.

It’s wet.

It’s cold.

It hurts.

Frisk opened their eyes.

They were lying on their back staring up at… the night sky? They could see stars. No, they weren’t stars they were crystals. They were in Waterfall? How did they get here? The last thing Frisk remembered was that they had been fighting Papyrus. They remembered falling and getting really hurt. They must have died, they felt their soul leave their body, but this was most certainly not a save point. 

“Hey Chara, do you know what just happened?”

There was no response.

Frisk knew something was wrong immediately. Even when Chara gives them the cold shoulder they had always been able to feel their presence but now they couldn’t feel Chara at all! Panicked, Frisk attempted to access their save and restart ability but after a minute of trying they concluded that the ability was simply not there anymore. On one hand they were relieved that Chara was no longer in their head, on the hand though, they had no idea where they went and now they had no way to save should anything bad happen. 

Frisk rubbed their face with their tiny hands and sat up. They were sitting on the bank of a river that they recognized as being pretty darn close to Hotland. Had… Had they washed up here? When did they fall into the river? Frisk groaned and got to their feet. They felt awful, like they had been stabbed about ten times. Frisk spotted a water sausage plant and plucked off the edible part. After shoving it to their mouth, Frisk cringed. Uncooked water sausage was super gross but they desperately needed the health. 

They were about to pick another water sausage when they saw something really weird. There was clothing lying all over ground. Frisked bent over and picked up a pair of glasses out of the dirt. They held the spectacles up to their face to inspect them. Frisk was struck with the realization as to who these clothes belonged to, but… why would Grillby leave his clothing and glasses lying around over here? 

Frisk looked in every direction, really hoping they weren’t about to spot a naked flame monster. 

Not seeing anything Frisk was about to leave when they heard a faint voice coming from the river, “H-help me… help please.” The voice was so weak and soft. They looked towards the river and saw that a small flame no bigger than a fist was sitting on a lily pad that was rapidly moving further downstream. 

No way… it couldn’t be… 

“Grillby!?”

Frisk dropped the glasses and ran into the river. Thankfully the river didn’t have a strong current and they were able to swim fast enough to reach the lily pad in time before it was swept into rougher waters. Grabbing it, they carefully pulled it back to the riverbank where they were able pick it up and bring it onto the grass. After placing it on the grass they ran around and grabbed as many twigs as they could and began feeding the little ball of fire. 

After a while the flame grew larger and they moved past the need for twigs and they started gathering branches and anything else flammable they could find. 

They returned to Grillby from another scavenging trip and were pleased to find he was finally able to get dressed and put his glasses back on, but it was obvious he was still pretty weak. Right now he was sitting cross-legged on the ground and appeared to be waiting patiently for Frisk to bring him back more food. Frisk dumped a pile of sticks in front of him, which he immediately began to devour. 

“Uh, do you eat pinecones?” Frisk had gathered a few but didn’t know if Grillby wanted them. 

Grillby’s head tilted to the side in contemplation and then motioned for Frisk to hand him one. They gave it to him and he opened his mouth, which Frisk thought was totally awesome looking by the way, and shoved the pinecone in. After a moment of ‘chewing’ he gave them a thumbs up and Frisk gave him the rest of pile of pinecones to snack on. 

“Thank you, human, for helping me.” It was the first thing he had said since calling for help.

Frisk shrugged. “It was the right thing to do. Oh, and you can call me Frisk.” 

Grillby nodded his head accepting Frisk’s modest answer. “I’ve seen you in my bar before, correct?” he inquired. Frisk smiled and told him he wasn’t mistaken, but then they frowned. “Uh, Grillby? About how long ago did you last see me in your bar?” 

He tilted his head to the side in contemplation and said, “I do believe I last saw you about three days ago.”

Frisk paled and whispered, “I’ve been unconscious for three days?” 

Grillby looked startled by Frisk’s statement. I mean… as startled as a flame monster can look without a face. 

“Why were you unconscious?” 

“Why were you floating down the river on a lily pad?” Frisk shot back. 

“Frisk.”

“I’m sorry. I just haven’t been having such a great past three days apparently.” They sighed and rubbed the back of their head trying to figure out a good place to start. 

“Three days ago I got into a battle with Papyrus. It was supposed to be harmless but something went wrong and well… I think I died.” 

Grillby’s flames shot up and cracked angrily. 

Frightened, Frisk tried to take a step back but slipped on some mud and fell on their backside. This caused the angered flame monster to cool off immediately. “I’m sorry small one, I… I think you need to start from the beginning.”

The beginning? In order to tell him about the beginning they would need to explain to him about their reset abilities. They would need to explain to him about Chara. Did they really want him to know about this? This wasn’t even his problem. However, Frisk also knew though that they desperately needed help right now. Without their abilities they could die in this place easily. They needed, for lack of a better word, a bodyguard. 

“Fine, I’ll tell you everything but first you need to promise not to freak out, and before I start I really gotta know why you were stuck on that lily pad.” 

Grillby thought for a moment and said, “I agree to your terms because I believe our stories may be connected.” 

So Grillby told Frisk all about how Papyrus went insane and started killing everyone and about how he attempted to stop him only to get thrown into the river like an idiot. By the end of his story Frisk looked really ill. They didn’t want it to be true, but they were pretty dang sure Chara had somehow been absorbed by Papyrus.

“How did you survive getting dunked into the river?” Frisk asked.

“A general rule of thumb for fire monsters is to have an escape plan in the event of catastrophic extinguishing. Just before I fell into the river I threw a few special fireballs that housed small fragments of my soul in them in every direction just hoping one would stick to something I could use to rekindle myself with. Unfortunately the only one that stuck was the one that happened to land on a lily pad that was floating in the middle of the river.”

“Wait. So is your soul in pieces now?”

“No. As I regrew my soul regrew with me.” 

Frisk would have found this all to be very fascinating if they didn’t feel like they were about to throw up after having heard about all the atrocities Chara forced Papyrus to perform. 

“I suppose it’s my turn to tell you my story, but remember, don’t freak out okay?” Grillby nodded in agreement and Frisk told him everything. They told him about their abilities, they told him about the other timelines, they told him about Chara, and finally they told him about how Papyrus might have accidently absorbed Chara’s soul. Grillby kept his word and didn’t flip out but he was unsettlingly still throughout the entire explanation. At the end of the story the fire monster just sort of sat there for five minutes straight not saying anything. Frisk was worried something was actually wrong with Grillby, and they were about to ask if he was alright when he finally spoke. 

“I really need a cigarette.”

Frisk gave him an incredulous look and stuck out their tongue. Flame monsters probably didn’t get lung damage from smoking, but apparently nicotine works just fine on them! Monsters are freaking weird. 

“Well you’re probably going to need a whole box of cigars after I’m done telling you about the plan I have to get Chara back.”

“Why would you _want_ that murderous thing back?”

“So I can have a tea party with them. What do you think I’m going to do!? Obviously once I get them back I’ll be able to use my restart ability to erase this awful timeline from existence.” 

“Okay Frisk, tell me your plan to fix all of this.” 

“Well we have two options. If we can get close enough to Papyrus, you should be able to just sorta reach into him, grab the soul, and shove it into me. It shouldn’t hurt him, however… if we can’t get close to him we will have to go with plan B.”

“Which is?”

“We would need to kill Papyrus, which would force Chara’s soul out of his body, and then I would need to grab it before it breaks and disappears forever.” 

It was Grillby’s turn to look sick. Sure he was ready to kill Papyrus when he had thought the tall skeleton brother had gone out of his mind, but now that he had found out the kindly skeleton was being used as a puppet… Grillby wasn’t so keen on the idea of having to kill him. 

Frisk stood up and said, “Grillby, I know we can do this but I can’t do this without your help.”

Frisk stuck out their hand to the sitting elemental monster. 

At one point in Grillby's life humans had been his greatest enemy. He had killed more humans on the battle field than he cared to remember, but right now he was willing to die to protect this child. They represented the hope that the monsters had lost long ago. The hope that one day humans and monsters could work and live together in harmony on the surface. Grillby was willing to do anything to see those hopes and dreams become a reality. 

Grillby didn’t hesitate for a second. He grabbed the small human’s hand and hauled himself to his feet.

“Let’s end this shall we?”

Frisk gave him a small smile and nodded. With that they began their trek to Asgore's Castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is pretty dialogue heavy. Promise the next one will be more fun.


	11. Small Skeleton, Big Issues

Chara was pissed. They should have made sure the flame monster was dead. No wonder he didn’t give any EXP that should have been a big freaking clue! Frisk… well they had no idea how Frisk survived because they definitely got EXP from them. 

Grillby and Frisk walked right past Papyrus to stand next to Sans who was still laying on the ground. The fire monster held out his hand to Sans and said, “Sorry Sans, but you still have to pay back your tab.” Sans gave Grillby a genuine smile and took his hand. 

“impeccable timing grillbz, I thought I was boned.” 

Frisk could tell Sans was really hurt. He was leaning heavily onto Grillby and looked like he could collapse at any moment. Frisk dug around in their pockets and pulled out some junk food they got from Bratty and Catty. They walked up to the small skeleton and handed it to him. “hey kiddo’ that’s mighty kind of you.” Sans winked and stuffed the food into him mouth. The change was instantaneous and Sans was once again able to stand on his own. 

Sans wiped his mouth with his hoody sleeve and looked at Frisk. “kid, do you mind tellin’ me how your pet demon got stuck in my bro?” 

They heard a snarl come from Papyrus and they turned to see him pointing at Frisk. “Chara also demands to know how you are alive!” 

Frisk just shrugged and said, “All I have is a theory. When Papyrus accidently killed me and tried to take my soul, Chara’s soul jumped at the opportunity to get absorbed by Papyrus and their soul sorta just pushed my soul back into my body. Um, does that make sense?” Everybody just shook their heads no and Frisk stuck their tongue out and shrugged their shoulders again. “Welp, that’s all I got.” 

“wait. you killed the kid bro?” Sans asked stiffly. 

“It was an accident Sans,” Frisk emphasized, “and Chara just took advantage of the freak accident.” 

Grillby took a step towards Papyrus and looked over his shoulder at the small human. “I think it’s time for you to go wait by the wall Frisk.” Frisk nodded their head and gave him thumbs up before leaving to go stand behind one of the many beautifully crafted columns that held this place together. Grillby would need to weaken Papyrus first in order to get close enough to him to grab the tainted soul. This could get intense. 

Grillby pushed his glasses up and said, “Now I do believe we have a fight to finish.”

“You want to fight me again? Nyeh! That didn’t work out so well for you last time.” The tall skeleton mocked. 

Grillby opened his freaky jagged mouth and grinned. “Well… there are no rivers for you to throw me into this time.” 

Papyrus laughed. “You are foolish to challenge The Great Papyrus, for I have gotten a lot stronger since we last fought. You haven’t even witnessed the full extent of my power.” 

“Then show me!” Grillby raised his arm and was about to fire a projectile at Papyrus when a bone smashed into his wrist.

“What the hell?” Grillby grabbed his wrist in pain. He didn’t even see the bone coming! If he had he would have been able to disperse his flames to allow the bone to pass through  
without hurting him. 

He had been watching Papyrus the whole time and the tall skeleton made no move to summon a bone yet. Where did that bone come from? Looking up from his injured wrist he noticed Papyrus looked just as surprised as he was. Slowly he turned his head to see Sans holding his left arm out and bones were hovering around him preparing to strike. His left eye was glowing blue.

Oh… Oh _hell_ no. 

“i’m not going to let you hurt my brother grillby,” Sans said in a dangerous tone. 

Grillby snarled at Sans and his flames danced in agitation. “Look Sans, I know you have some kind of fucked up brother complex but I really need you to fall in line soldier, because you’re compromising the integrity of this mission!”

“are you even listening to yourself grillbz? soldier? mission? you’re not in the army anymore old man! you’ve gone off the deep end and if you think i’m gonna’ let you hurt my bro, you’ve got another thing comin’.” 

“He’s going to destroy the world Sans.” 

The bones around Sans wavered for a moment and he whispered, “i… i know..” 

“And you’re okay with that!?”

“i never said i was okay with it!” Sans cried. 

“i made a promise to him when we were just baby bones that i would protect him no matter what. we were all alone in the world together and he was frightened…” Tears began to form around his eye sockets and fall down his cold, hard cheeks. 

Papyrus remained silent throughout this entire exchange. Chara wanted to see where this was going. They really hoped the two monsters would destroy each other because that would be hilarious! Chara had hit the jackpot by jacking Papyrus’s body. He truly was Sans’ biggest weakness. 

Frisk on the other hand couldn’t stand listening to them fight any longer. They left their hiding spot and began running towards Sans.

“Frisk, Stay back! He’s dangerous!” Grillby called out but Frisk ignored him and continued until they slammed straight into the small skeleton and grasped his blue hoody sleeve in their tinny fists. 

Looking up at the distressed skeleton’s face Frisk pleaded with him “Sans, please we can stop your brother. We can-“ 

Frisk was suddenly enveloped in blue aurora. Sans flicked his arm haphazardly to the left causing Frisk to go flying horizontally backwards before smashing into the wall. The child let out a pained cry before dropping to the floor unmoving. 

For just a brief moment there was total silence. 

Sans was stunned by his own actions as much as everyone else was. 

The silence was broken by Grillby’s guttural roar of rage. The fire monster launched himself at the small skeleton. He started about ten paces away from Sans but was on him in an instant, knocking him to the checker patterned floor. Grillby wrapped his flaming hands around his best friend’s neck and squeezed. Sans let out a choked growl and began attempting to throw the inferno beast off of him. 

Papyrus had just been standing there watching this all unfold. He was actually a little shocked by the turn of events. Chara regained his attention by telling him that he should use his super-secret special attack now that they were distracted. Personally, Papyrus didn’t like his super-secret special attack because frankly it scared the meatballs out of him. He got the idea from watching Sans use it once during a training session.

Sans didn’t usually train but Papyrus had been pestering him for days until he finally gave in. Only… well, just to spite him Sans had used what he called a Gaster Blaster to blow away all the snowman dummies he had set up for them to practice on. He didn’t talk to Sans for about three days after that incident. Not just because Sans had ruined his training course, but because he never realized how much power his small brother truly possessed and it scared him a little bit. 

But now Papyrus was summoning his own terrifying beast skull. He looked within himself to gather the necessary power and pointed his hand directly at the two monsters fighting on the ground. He and Chara had practiced this move on a few monsters before entering Asgore’s Castle, so he knew he could do it but it took a lot of concentration and energy.  
The skull was ugly. A lot uglier than the one his brother had summoned. 

Half of the beastly skull looked almost canine, with an orange glowing eye, but the other half had a red eye and bone that was covered with cracks that oozed black sludge. The skull began powering up the energy it was going to use to obliterate his brother and Grillby. 

Sans was doing everything he could to squirm out of Grillby’s grasp, but the flame monster had his neck in such a tight grip he was sure it was going to snap. He tried using his magic but the flame monster refused to let go. Grillby just gripped tighter and increased the heat. Sans honestly felt like he was going to die. He just wanted to look at his brother one last time so he glanced up to where his bro was standing and was shocked to see him in the presence of a sinister looking Gaster Blaster. 

“g-grill-bbz l-look out!” he choked and pointed at the hideous skull. Grillby looked up but it was too late. 

The Gaster Blaster fired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. That just happened.


	12. The REAL Battle Begins

A pure white energy beam ripped towards the two monsters with insane speed and power. Thinking fast Sans wrapped his boney arms around his old friend and used his teleporting ability to move them out of the beam’s path of destruction. Sans managed to drop them next to Frisk who still hadn’t moved an inch. Grillby rolled off of him and the two monsters lay on the ground gasping for air. 

It took a moment for both monsters to gather themselves after that near death experience. Sans turned to the older monster and said, “hey, grillby?” The fiery bartender looked at him and Sans continued, “i’ve been a real bonehead, huh?” Grillby let out a bark of laughter at that understatement. 

When Sans saw the deformed Gaster Blaster he knew his brother was long gone and that he had been a fool. The Gaster Blaster was always a perfect representation of the users’ soul and his brother’s soul would never create something as disturbing as what he had just seen. 

“i can’t hurt my brother, but i’m not going to stop you anymore. go, and i’ll look after the kid.” Grillby looked at Sans’ and observed that the skeleton looked extremely upset, which was understandable, but there was also sincerity in his eyes.

Grillby didn’t say anything. He just nodded his head, got to his knees, and stood up. As soon as he rose he sprinted towards Papyrus, directing the crazed skeleton’s attention away from Sans and Frisk. As Grillby drew Papyrus away, Sans sat against the wall and looked down at the small injured human next to him. 

“wow. i really messed up.” 

He grabbed the kid and gently pulled the child onto his lap so that he could use his magic to scan for injuries. After the scan he should be able to heal Frisk as long as the injuries weren’t too severe. Oh God, he hoped the injuries weren’t too severe. He didn’t have much energy left. He had never put this much effort into a single timeline before. It had always seemed pointless because things were going to reset anyway so why try? But now it was possible that the outcome could be permanent and at the expense of his brother. This was all taking a serious toll on his emotional stability. He was really tired and just wanted to sleep for a week or two. Right now however, the kid needed his help so he initiated the injury scan. 

Grillby didn’t want to admit it, but he was having a tough time with Papyrus. The skeleton had indeed grown much stronger since their last encounter. He also seemed quite a bit better at dodging his fire attacks, seeing how he had yet to land a single hit on the tall skeleton. What’s worse is that the strange beast skull Papyrus summoned could definitely be the end of him if he sustained a direct hit from its energy beam. 

“Hmm…” Grillby had an idea but it was going to be risky.

He knew that a few hallways away there was a museum that housed his old battle armor he had used during the Monster and Human War that the museum displayed periodically to the public. The armor was infused with one of a kind magic that provides a power boost to his fire attacks. If he could reach that armor he should be on a more even level with Papyrus. However, each time Grillby attempted to lure Papyrus out of the Judgment Hall the skeleton always turned back to head towards Sans and Frisk, which was something Grillby couldn’t allow. He decided it was time to do something stupid. Something he hadn’t done since the war.

He split himself in half. 

It looked identical to him, it fought identically to him, and yet it was not him. Doppelgangers were very useful because they gave him a tactical advantage in battle by allowing him to attack from multiple angles. Unfortunately it also comes at a steep price. The clone was a direct extension of himself and it shared his stats so now he only had half the health and attack he started with. Furthermore, should the double be destroyed, it will take a significant amount of time for him to regenerate the lost stats. He would be at half health with low strength for the rest of the battle. In other words, if Papyrus manages to destroy the decoy before he gets back from the museum and he is unable to reabsorb it, he was going to be screwed. Even with the magic armor, if he only had half his stats he wouldn’t stand a chance. 

It was definitely a big risk but it was his only chance to get the upper hand. Right now he needed to create an opening that would allow him to slip away.  
When Grillby split himself into two Papyrus was completely baffled. “Th-there are two of them? Which one am I supposed to destroy?”

**“Does it matter? Destroy them both, duh.”**

Papyrus grumbled in annoyance and began firing bones at both targets. They moved fast. Too fast for Papyrus to land a decent hit. He was summoning bones and whipping them as fast as he could at the two fire entities. They weren’t hitting him back though… what where they doing?

 **“You idiot, don’t let them circle you!”**

The warning came too late and Papyrus gasped in surprise as he realized one of the Grillbys had a full view of his unprotected backside. 

Now Grillby had Papyrus right where he wanted him. He and his doppelganger unleashed their firepower on the surprised skeleton. His clone managed to hit Papyrus a few times in the back, angering the possessed monster. To keep the heat off his back (literally) Papyrus sent his Gaster Blaster after one of flame monsters, allowing him to focus on just one of them while the other played with his new pet. 

The plan worked! Papyrus began chasing after the decoy. However, now Grillby had a crazed skull beast right on his tail. He was running as fast as he could towards the end of the hall, but behind him he could hear the frightening sound of the skull beast firing its energy beam. Quickly, he dropped to the floor and covered his head with his hands. The beam of energy passed over him. That had been close. That had been WAY too close. 

Grillby picked himself up and sprinted to the exit before the beast could fire again. Thankfully as soon as he crossed the threshold the murderous skull stopped chasing him and turned back towards the fight between Papyrus and the decoy. 

He was finally free to go get his equipment. The museum wasn’t far, but he needed to hurry because it was very likely the decoy wouldn’t last long without him. Also, because it was just a mindless double it couldn’t take very specific orders without his presence guiding it. He could either command it to dodge or command it to fight. Right now he needed it to dodge so that it had a better chance of lasting until he got back. He hoped he had made the right choice. 

Sans was watching the battle between his brother and Grillby closely as he healed Frisk. The kid was doing… okay. The scan of their injuries showed he had bruised the poor kid’s occipital lobe, which was located at the back of the brain. Now, he might have been a scientist at one point in his life, but he was certainly not a neurologist and the fact that he completely lacked a brain in the first place pretty much means he’s not exactly the most qualified person to handle the delicate task of healing a human brain injury. But he had to _try_ and as much as he hated trying anything, he owed Frisk and needed to fix what he had broken. He just wished… he just wished his bro was here to help him. Papyrus had always been better at healing spells. 

It took a lot of energy just to heal this stupid bruise. Sans had his glowing blue hand pressed gently to the back of Frisk’s skull, and it didn’t take long for him to begin sweating form magic over expenditure. However, it appeared to be working because finally Frisk opened their eyes. 

“hey buddy, how many fingers am i holding up?”

“Th-three?”

“heh heh heh… sorry kiddo’ i’m only holding up two fingers, thumbs don’t count as fingers.” Sans wiggled his thumb for emphasis which extracted a weak giggle from the child. Sans’ grin widened at the sound. He closed his left eye socket and opened his right one. 

“So uh… how you feelin’?”

Frisk gave him an exasperated look. “I feel like my head got smashed into a wall.”

Sans cringed and scratched the side of his head with his fingers. He looked away from Frisk and said, “yeah, sorry about that.” 

The kid gave him a real big smile. A smile he didn’t deserve and whispered, “It’s okay.” 

That made him angry. Not at Frisk, but at himself. 

“no, it’s not okay frisk! i really hurt you because of my selfishness.” He glared at his left hand and closed it into a tight fist.

Frisk leaned over and placed their small hand on top of his closed fist. “We can make this right. Once Grillby grabs Chara’s soul and gives it to me I should be able to reset the timeline and erase this nightmare.”

Sans blinked and looked the kid right in the eyes before asking, “would you really do that?” 

Frisk frowned at Sans’ unreadable expression and shrugged, “Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem once I get Chara back inside me.”

“no. that’s not what i meant,” Frisk gave him a confused look and he continued, “i meant, you’d be willing to take back that demonic soul just so you could make everything right again?” 

Frisk wasn’t sure where this conversation was heading but they slowly nodded their head because that’s exactly what they were willing to do. 

Sans’ gave Frisk a look could only be admiration said, “wow, if i were you, i would have ditched this place the moment the evil soul was gone from my body.”

Frisk shook their head. “I would still have to kill Asgore to leave this place, and there is no way I would do that.” 

Sans leaned his head back against the wall and closed both his eye sockets. “i must be more selfish than i thought, because if i was in your position i probably would kill asgore to leave this hell hole.” 

Frisk squeezed his hand hard and said, “No you wouldn’t, you’re way kinder than that.” 

Was he? Hell if he knew, but he did know that he wanted to be the kind person Frisk obviously thought he was.

He was going to say something back but he realized with a jolt that he could no longer hear the sounds of fighting. He looked up to see his brother striding towards them with a very unsettling look of determination on his face. 

Chara was getting progressively more angered as time went by without Papyrus landing a single hit on the stupid fire monster. He just kept dodging! They also lost sight of the second one, but they were pretty sure Papyrus’s Gaster Blaster took care of it. However it seemed rather unable to take care of this one! Even though Chara could tell Papyrus’s blasters were getting stronger with every release of energy, he still seemed unable to land a good hit. What worse is that Grillby wasn’t even attacking back! He didn’t say or do anything he just kept dodging. What if… what if for some reason he _couldn’t_ hit back?

 **“Papyrus stop your attack!”**

Papyrus came to an abrupt halt and awaited orders. Just as Chara suspected, for some reason Grillby wasn’t able to attack back. He just stood there waiting to dodge more attacks. Chara didn’t understand it but now they didn’t care so long as the dumb monster didn’t get in their way they could take out Frisk. They knew that if Frisk got their hand on their soul they would reset this wonderful timeline. Chara wasn’t about to let that happen.

 **“Forget this flame freak, go kill Frisk. They are the biggest threat to our freedom.”**

Papyrus nodded and began walking towards his brother and the small human. 

Sans crouched and covered the kid with his body, just trying to protect them any way he could from whatever Chara had in store for them. His magic was depleted from healing Frisk. He couldn’t teleport both of them together right now, and he definitely wasn’t about to leave Frisk. His brother stopped walking and Sans looked up at his painfully apathetic face. 

“you’re going to have to kill me to get to them papyrus.” 

Papyrus smiled. “You know I don’t have a problem with that, brother.” Papyrus raised his bone club and Sans closed his eyes. If he was going to die he at least wanted his last act to be selfless. Maybe the kid could find a way out of this situation without him. He smiled at the thought. 

Apparently that’s not what fate had in store for him. A scream erupted from in front of him and he jerked his eyes open just in time to see Papyrus staggering away from them cradling his right arm. Actually, that wasn’t quite right. Papyrus was cradling what was _left_ of his right arm. The limb had been severed at the elbow and was currently on the ground with the bone club still in its grasp. Sans thought he was going to be sick.

Grillby was standing in front of them wearing what appeared to be armor made entirely out of obsidian. His sword, the blade of which was currently resting in the floor next to Papyrus’s severed arm, was made out of the same black volcanic glass and seemed to be infused with his fire magic. Flames were weaving in and out of the weapon in a deadly display of power as Grillby pulled the sword out of the ground effortlessly. 

“I’m sorry Papyrus, but I cannot allow you to continue your existence in this world any longer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was actually really sick when I wrote this part. Sorry for it being so sucky.


	13. A Bad Time

Papyrus screamed as incredible pain exploded through his right arm. Looking down at the source of the pain he… he didn’t understand. His arm was gone? His arm had been there just a second ago where did it go!? He looked around frantically until he spotted his missing limb on the ground. That wasn’t right. That wasn’t right at all! He was vaguely aware that both Grillby and Chara were speaking to him but a loud buzzing noise drowned out the both of them as shock over took him. Holding his injured arm he stumbled away from the fire monster and fell onto his backside. Help, he needed help. Looking up he saw Sans staring at him with horror etched across his face. His brother would help him right? Sans… he needed Sans. 

He cried out, “He-help me! Help me brother!” Tears began running down his face, “Please Sans, it hurts so much!” He reached out for his brother with his uninjured arm. 

Without thinking, Sans stood up and was about to run to his injured brother’s aid when the flat end of a black blade pressed against his chest forcing him to stop. 

Sans glared up at Grillby, his left eye flashing blue. The fire monster fixed him with critical look. Just as he was about to get into another serious confrontation with his favorite fire monster, he felt something tugging at the bottom of his hoodie. Tearing his gaze from Grillby he looked down to see the kid, sitting on the ground, holding on tight to the hem of his blue hoodie. The child looked up at him with a pained expression on their face. 

“Sans… let Grillby handle this please. There’s nothing you can do for him now.”

The blue magic in Sans’ eye dissipated immediately. He plunged both his hands into his hoodie pockets and slumped against the wall. Slowly, he slid down the cold golden surface until he was once again sitting next to Frisk. He didn’t want to see this, so he did what he was best at doing during stressful situations. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

At first Frisk thought Sans had passed out until they heard him snoring. What the heck!? How could he sleep at a time like this? They were about to shake him awake when Grillby told them not to wake him. Apparently it was just Sans’ way of regenerating his magic. Frisk let out a sigh and carefully rested their head on the sleeping skeleton’s shoulder, deciding that they would only wake him if they needed to. They didn’t really want Sans to watch this fight anyway, and if they were going to be honest with themselves, they didn’t want to witness this fight either. 

Meanwhile, Chara was seething within their damaged vessel. They couldn’t believe their puppet had sustained such critical damage after just one hit! Worse still, Papyrus has turned into a blubbering moron! He wasn’t listening to their commands. The shock of losing his arm was disrupting their power of influence over him. They needed to regain control soon or else that beefed-up bartender was going to rip them from the skeleton’s body. 

While Grillby was distracted by Frisk and that waste of space Sans, Chara began talking calmly to the hysterical skeleton. As much as Chara hated the thought of coddling the tall skeleton, Papyrus was like a child. You don’t just shout at a frightened child and expect results. No, like a child, Papyrus required reassurance. 

**“Papyrus, please listen to me. I know you’re badly hurt but you must stay determined!”**

Papyrus whimpered weakly in acknowledgment. 

**“Okay. Let’s think about this for a second. You can summon bones right? Why not just make yourself a new arm?”**

In his panicked state Papyrus had completely forgotten about his powers. He supposed he could create a new arm, but it wouldn’t be permanent. It would be a summoned object similar to his Gaster Blaster and it would disappear as soon as this was all over. Nothing would ever truly bring back his arm. 

**“Think about that later. I suggest you create some distance between yourself and Grillby so you can focus on your magic.”**

A wave of relief washed over Chara when Papyrus accepted their suggestion by nodding his head. They had regained control. 

Pushing off the ground with his uninjured arm, Papyrus stood up and immediately began running away from Grillby. Looking over his shoulder, he pointed at the fire monster and commanded his Gaster Blaster to attack. The blaster had been idling nearby when Papyrus was panicking but now it was moving full force in Grillby’s direction. 

As soon as Papyrus began running away Grillby was in hot pursuit after him. Keeping up with Papyrus was not an easy task. The injured skeleton’s skull beast was blasting holes in the floor all around him and his heavy armor made it difficult to maneuver out of the way. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and it was showing. After the war he had given up fighting in favor of running his own bar and raising a family. He never thought he would be required to once again don his old gear and go to battle, so he was extremely out of practice. 

As he ran past one of the golden windows he caught a glimpse of himself in its reflection and was reminded of why he had given his armor to the museum in the first place.  
His armor was created during a time when psychological warfare was in heavy use on both sides of the battle field. As a general, he had his armor crafted specifically to ignite fear in the souls of his enemies. The obsidian was blacker than the darkest corners of the Underground, but its reflective surface gleamed ominously in the light of his flame. Yes, it was armor that was crafted with cruelty in mind and by the end of the war it was covered not only in the blood of his enemies, but the dust of his fallen friends as well. 

It was true what they say. During the war not a single human lost their soul. However, thousands of humans lost their lives. It’s funny, in a way, that Humans feared the thought of monsters taking their souls so much they started a war and nearly brought monsterkind to the brink of extinction. And yet at the time, taking a human soul was so taboo among monsters that they had no desire to take them even on the battle field. 

Times have changed. Monsters that had previously refused to steal souls on the battle field were now stealing the souls of mere children in an attempt to free themselves from their exile. Grillby couldn’t blame the other monsters for discarding their objections towards the ancient forbidden act in favor of freedom, but he did find it all so incredibly _pathetic_. 

Grillby shook his head attempting to clear his thoughts. He needed to stay focused or he was going to get vaporized by an energy beam. He was beginning to gain on Papyrus, when the skull beast was suddenly right next to him flying perfectly parallel to his position. It was opening its skeletal jaw in preparation of releasing another energy beam when Grillby swung his sword at it. 

The blade made contact with the beast and sent it spiraling away from him. As it spiraled out of control the skull released a burst of energy that slammed into a golden pillar, nearly hitting Papyrus. Grillby didn’t stop. He kept running even as the huge pillar cracked in half and began falling to the ground. He realized too little too late that he wasn’t going to make it. In a last ditch effort to make it past the falling pieces Grillby went into a low slide.

Papyrus stopped and watched as the pillar crashed to the ground. The sound it generated as it hit the floor was deafening, and the entire hall shook so hard he was nearly knocked off his feet. Steadying himself, he threw up his uninjured arm to shield his eye sockets as an enormous wave of small bits of yellow stone and dust hit him.  
As the sound dissipated, Papyrus lowered his arm. It was now so quiet he could only hear his own heavy breathing. Grillby was… dead? He squinted attempting to see through the yellow dust cloud that hung heavily in the air. Nothing, there was nothi-

**“ABOVE YOU!”**

Startled by Chara’s scream, Papyrus looked up to see a shadowy figure flying directly at him through the haze. 

Grillby almost didn’t make it. He managed to slide himself past the pillar just before it crashed to the golden tiled floor. Gold dust blew around him but he had his sights locked on his target, and even as the dust obscured his vision he knew precisely where Papyrus was located. Still having plenty of momentum after the slide, he ran full speed and launched himself off a large chunk of broken pillar that had landed between himself and Papyrus. 

As Grillby fell towards the tall skeleton, he raised his sword high above his head and swung it into a powerful downward arch. The sound of obsidian slicing through metal filled the air as his blade made contact. Then there was silence. 

The dust settled to reveal Grillby crouching on the ground in front of Papyrus, with his blade embedded in the floor between Papyrus’s boots. 

Papyrus looked down in disbelief. Grillby’s blade had missed! The obsidian blade had sliced through his battle body chest plate causing the cheap metal to break apart and fall to the ground with a loud clang. Papyrus was about turn and run again when a hand shot up and grasped him hard by his now exposed ribs. 

When Grillby had cut off Papyrus’s armor he could see the tainted soul housed within the skeleton’s rib-cage. The soul was a deep red color but periodically it flashed black. Quickly, he roughly grabbed Papyrus by the ribs with his gleaming black gauntlet, preventing the tall skeleton from fleeing. Flames burst out of his hand and scorched Papyrus's ribs. Grillby raised his other hand and was about to pull the evil soul from Papyrus’s body when he heard a sound that made him freeze. 

It was the unmistakable sound of Papyrus’s skull beast firing its energy beam. 

Grillby turned to look for the source of the noise but it was far too late. The beam caught him full in the chest with enough force that it blasted him into the nearest wall. The force of his armor slamming into the wall caused the gold surface to crack and crumble. His sword clattered to the ground next to Papyrus. 

Papyrus rubbed his ribs. That had hurt.

**“But I bet it doesn’t hurt as much as getting a direct blast from your blaster!”**

Glancing over to the injured flame monster, Papyrus had to agree.

 **“I think it’s time to fix that arm of yours and extinguish this flame once and for all.”**

Closing his eye sockets he looked within himself and began weaving his magic. Finally, he looked down and… uh. Hmm… this wasn’t exactly what he had been expecting. The bones were glowing orange and they were jagged with cracks that oozed the same kind of black sludge as his Gaster Blaster. 

He hated it.

Chara loved it.

 **“Let’s see just how strong it is.”**

Papyrus bent down and grabbed Grillby’s sword with his new right hand. Using the floor, he bent the blade until it snapped and shattered spraying the ground with shiny black rock fragments. Papyrus threw the broken pieces in his hands at Grillby who groaned in pain.

 **“It’s time to finish this flame freak.”**

As Papyrus approached Grillby he noticed the flame monster was looking at something in his hand. Bending down he twisted Grillby’s wrist painfully until the fire monster hissed in agony and dropped the object. It was a photo. Papyrus picked it up and examined the image. In the photo was Grillby, and he was being hugged by a young, green, female flame monster. It was his daughter. Grillby looked so proud and… happy. It was probably the happiest he had ever seen Grillby. 

Chara couldn’t stand this sappy bullshit. They forced Papyrus to put the photo down. 

Papyrus grabbed the flame monster by his chest armor and lifted him up off the ground. He didn’t need to go far. Walking over to one of the many beautiful windows, he pushed Grillby up against the glass. Slowly he applied pressure until the glass behind the fire monster began to crack. With one swift shove the glass shattered and the old war hero began to fall. 

Just before he was completely out the window, Grillby latched onto Papyrus’s arm, raised his other hand, and released a powerful fireball. 

The fireball shot past a surprised Papyrus and hit the floating skull beast dead on. The Gaster Blaster exploded into flames and crashed to the ground. Enraged, Papyrus grabbed Grillby and pulled him back into the room. 

“I was trying to give you a quick death rather than let you become Chara’s plaything, but now you’re going to suffer.”

Papyrus grabbed the fire monster and began dragging him back towards Frisk and his brother. 

Frisk had no idea what was going on. Grillby and Papyrus were too far down the hall for them to see the two monsters anymore. They could hear a bunch of explosions and every once in a while the whole place would shake violently. Sans slept through it all. Even when the room filled with yellow dust from what they were pretty sure was a collapsing pillar, sans didn’t even flinch. 

When the hall grew silent Frisks heart began beating rapidly. Was it over? Frisk listened carefully for any sign of movement. They began to hear footsteps and a strange noise that sounded like… metal being dragged? As they looked around for the source of the noise, Frisk cried out in shock as Grillby’s armored body came flying towards them. The body hit the floor in front of them and slid until it crashed into wall on the other side of Sans. 

Trembling, Frisk peered past Sans and saw with slight relief that the flame monster was still alive. He was in bad shape though, his flame was weak and his glasses were cracked to the point of being beyond useless. Frisk tried to get his attention, but quickly concluded that Grillby was unconscious and unable to respond. 

They became aware that Papyrus was standing not too far from them, watching as Frisk attempted to wake their friends. Frisk looked at him. He was in pretty bad shape himself. He had lost his chest plate and his ribs looked charred. His arm… his arm was a nightmare, and Frisk could see Chara’s soul flashing menacingly within his ribcage. 

The skeleton took a step forward and looked directly into Frisk’s eyes before saying, “I’m sorry small human… I’m sorry that I never got to share my spaghetti with you.” Papyrus’s voice was as sweet and kind as it was before all these awful things happened. 

Frisk stood up and walked over until they were standing directly in front of Papyrus. They rubbed their eyes with their hands trying not to cry and whispered, “Chara, let go.”  
Papyrus looked confused but Frisk continued, “Chara, let go of Papyrus and come back to me.” The skeleton’s face morphed from confused to enraged and without a word he turned his back to Frisk and began to walk away. Where was he going? 

After Papyrus was a safe distance away from the small human, Chara told him what he needed to do. Chara felt almost insulted! They couldn’t believe Frisk had actually asked for them to just give up and hand back Papyrus. Didn’t they realize how determined they were to finish this? What an annoying brat, they were going to make them pay. They were going to make them all pay!

Frisk watched as Papyrus held out his deformed right hand and realized with horror that he was summoning another blaster skull. Frantically Frisk looked back towards Sans and was surprised to find the small skeleton wide awake staring at his brother. Without taking his eyes off Papyrus, he motioned for Frisk to come back to him. 

When Frisk was back by his side they both watched as Papyrus summoned the biggest Gaster Blaster either of them had ever seen. Frisk was really scared. As the blaster began powering up they buried their face into his blue hoodie and quivered. The blaster eventually stopped powering up and he felt Frisk grip him tighter. 

His bro’s face betrayed no emotion but Sans could have sworn he heard him apologize before the weapon fired.

There was a big difference between a Gaster Blaster that is being controlled by a LV 1 monster such as Sans, and a Gaster Blaster that is being controlled by a LV 19 monster such as Papyrus. The amount of energy currently being spewed by his bro’s blaster dwarfed anything he had ever been able to achieve with his own blasters. The energy beam was white, like his own, when it left the blaster, but Papyrus’s also had what appeared to be red plasma leaking from the beam itself. Almost as if the universe was tearing at its seams trying to accommodate the vast amount of unstable power. He couldn’t help but think that Dr. Gaster would have loved seeing this abomination in action. 

When it fired, a powerful shock wave rippled through the entire hall. The ground shook and every single window in the hall exploded outward. The beam obliterated everything in its path. 

As it approached their position Sans’ left eye flared to life with blue magic. He grabbed the kid and Grillby’s boot before teleporting all three of them out of the beam’s path. He dropped Frisk and Grillby into a safe spot before teleporting again. 

As he traveled through time and space he materialized a bone into his hand. The moment he blinked into existence in front of his astonished brother, he let out a cry of anguish and swung with all his might hitting Papyrus in the spine. Teleporting again he blinked into existence midair at his brother’s head height and struck him again in the skull. Teleporting one last time he jammed the summoned bone between his brother’s ribs and pulled down as hard as he could until he could hear the ribs snap to pieces. 

Papyrus maintained the same stunned look on his face all the way up until the point he collapsed to the floor. Only then did his face change to one of pain as the lights in his eye sockets diminished. 

Sans let the bone slip from his grasp as he fell to his hands and knees screaming his brother’s name.

“PAPYRUS! PAPYRUUUSSSSS!!!”

Oh my God, he had killed his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops! Hahaha...
> 
> So, how about one more chapter?


	14. A Promise That Transcends Timelines

It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a crime of passion brought on by the heat of the moment. It was a meticulously calculated plan conceived the moment he had awoken and opened his eyes to find a distressed Frisk attempting to converse with the creature that had infected his brother. He knew what he needed to do. He saw that the structural integrity of Papyrus’s rib-cage had been weakened due to fire damage undoubtedly inflicted by Grillby, and he knew that a bone wedged between ribs and used like a God-damn crowbar would break apart his brother’s rib-cage instantly. 

He knew this would kill his brother.

Sure, you could argue that he had done it for the greater good, or out of self-defense, or out of the desire to save his friends. You’d be wrong, but Sans wouldn’t stop you from trying to defend his actions, he always could use a good laugh. No, he did it because he was tired. He was so very tired of playing this game. He wanted to destroy Chara. He wanted to destroy the thing that had tainted his brother and caused him and everyone else so much misery. He just wanted it all to end.

As he sat on the ground next to his dying brother he watched as the corrupt soul emerged from his brother’s destroyed chest cavity. In a moment of weakness he reached out for the angry flashing soul in hopes of tearing it to pieces, not caring about the consequences. Not caring that if he destroyed the soul Frisk would be unable to reset, not caring that it would mean never seeing his brother again, not caring if it meant all those monsters his brother had slayed would be gone forever. 

Just as his skeletal hand was about enclose on the ugly soul, a red gloved hand gently wrapped around his wrist. Startled, he looked down to see his brother looking up at him with a tired smile.

“Nyeh… I-I wouldn’t do that… brother.” 

“papyrus?” Every bone in Sans’ body stiffened.

Sans could see his brother disintegrating into dust before his very eyes, and yet he was still trying to talk. He couldn't believe how strong bro was. 

"I’m… sorry. I didn’t mean to… hu-hurt anyone.”

Sans clutched his brother’s hand a little tighter and rested his other hand on Papyrus’s skull. 

“no! papy, that wasn’t you. don’t think for a moment that it was you, you’re a great person.”

“Nyeh heh heh! I _am_ pretty great.” Papyrus gave him a proud smile.

Papyrus’s legs had completely turned to dust and he was attempting to look down at them, but Sans held his head still and said, “l-look at me bro, look at me!” Desperation began creeping into Sans’ voice. 

“I’m tired Sans.”

Tears were falling freely from Sans’s eye sockets. “yeah, you look bone-tired to me. why don’t you rest and i’ll be right here if you need anything.” 

Papyrus groaned at his bone joke but had already begun to close his eyes. “Al-alright brother, i’ll just take a quick nap… and then we can recalibrate our puzzles?” 

He flashed his brother a shaky smile and chuckled. “heh… yeah bro, we can-.” 

Papyrus completely collapsed to dust before he could even finish his sentence. A wave of fresh pain washed over Sans as he let his brother’s dust fall between his fingers. He did care. He did care about Frisk resetting the timeline, he did care about seeing his brother again, and he did care about all those monsters that had died by his brother’s hand and how they all deserved a better ending. He cared. He cared so much it hurt. He raised his dusty hands to his face and wept. 

It took a few moments before Sans was finally able to pull his hands away from his face and look up in search of the soul. He felt his nonexistent stomach plummet when he didn’t see it. Was it _gone_!? Did they miss the window of opportunity that would have allowed them to obtain the soul? 

Just as Sans felt panic start to take hold, he could feel a small hand patting his shoulder. He looked up to see Frisk holding the awful soul in their hand.  
Closing his left eye and opening his right he said, “hey there kiddo’ you almost gave me a heart attack, which would have been a pretty big achievement considering I don’t have a heart.” Sans laughed weakly. 

Frisk had grabbed the soul while Sans was speaking to Papyrus. They weren’t surprised to see Papyrus still talking despite his injuries. During the bad timelines when Papyrus was dying he always talked at great lengths before turning to dust. Frisk didn’t want to think about those bad timelines, but seeing Papyrus slowly dissolve was bringing back a lot of bad memories. Frisk watched the exchange between Sans and his brother in silence not wanting to disturb them. When Papyrus had fully disintegrated they felt determined. Determined to make things right. They could feel their own tears on their face and wiped at them with their blue sweater sleeve. 

“Sans I’m ready to absorb the soul if you’re ready to go.” Frisk wasn’t sure if Sans needed more time alone.

Sans took a deep breath and without looking at them he said, “go for it kid.” 

Frisk presented their own soul so that it was hovering just outside their chest and delicately pressed Chara’s soul against it. 

Frisk wasn’t going to lie, it hurt. Chara was making the re-absorption process difficult on purpose. It felt like electricity was carving its way through their entire body. The pain was intense, but it wasn’t long before their soul and Chara’s soul began pulsing in unison just as they had been before the accident. Frisk fell to one knee and Sans gripped their shoulder tight. 

“I-I’m okay,” Frisk whispered. “Chara is obviously not pleased,” Frisk continued and rubbed their head. Chara was currently swearing up a storm and it was giving Frisk a headache. 

“Sans?”

“Yeah kid?”

“I’m going to make sure a timeline like this never happens again. I promise.” 

Sans’ fixed grin widened. “heh, that means a lot to this lazy bag’o bones.” 

“Pfftt… you’re not _that_ lazy, but I can’t argue with the bag of bones part.” 

They shared another smile before Frisk spoke again. “Are you ready to end this?”

Sans shoved his hands into his pockets and said, “kid, i don’t think i’ve ever been more ready for a reset.”

Frisk nodded and accessed their menu. 

 

[R E S E T]  
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Fresh snow crunched under their shoes as they made their way towards Grillby’s, pausing only momentarily to reach up and pat Lesser Dog on the head. The dog yipped happily and its head rose a little higher. Slinging their bag over their shoulder they pushed the door to Grillby’s open and walked in. A bell above the door chimed and everyone in the bar turned to look at the new comer.

As they walked to the counter they waved at the rest of Dog Squad, all of whom waved back. Well, almost everyone. Doggo was too busy squinting at his cards to notice any movement. How did someone that could only see movement play poker anyway? 

“It’s nice to see you again weird puppy!” Dogamy said cheerfully. 

After speaking briefly to Dog Squad they continued on until they reached the counter. Sans was already there drinking from a ketchup bottle. They slung the bag onto the table and sat on the barstool next to the blue hoodied skeleton. 

The skeleton put down the bottle and turned to them. “hey frisk, what’s with the bag?”

“It’s a surprise.” They smiled and drummed on the counter with their hands in excitement. Frisk stopped drumming and lowered their voice. “How are you doing Sans?” 

If Sans had eyebrows one would definitely be raised in feigned surprise. “heh. buddy, you know me i’ve been working myself to the bone,” he said in his laziest voice before taking another swig of his ketchup bottle, grinning as Frisk rolled their eyes. 

He wasn’t going to tell them about how he’s been plagued with fucked up nightmares that usually ended with him murdering his own brother. Maybe when they’re older he’ll tell them. Perhaps when he’s absolutely sure there would be no more resets. 

Placing the bottle back on the counter, he asked, “how are _you_ doin’?” 

Frisk smiled and said, “Good. I’m about to go see your brother.” Frisk noticed Sans’ hand tighten around the ketchup bottle. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control,” Frisk pat his arm and before they hopped off the stool they called Grillby over and pushed the bag towards the fire monster. Confused, he grabbed the bag and before he could question them about it, the small human was happily skipping their way out the door. 

His confusion only increased as he opened the bag to find a note inside that simply said, ‘To show my thanks I brought you a snack.’ Reaching into the bag he pulled out… a _pine cone?_ The bag was full of pine cones. Sans had snatched the note and after he was done reading it he was howling with laughter as Grillby held up the offending object. Blushing deeply, causing the fire in his face to turn blue, he shoved the pine cone back into the bag and reminded Sans that he had an outstanding tab he needed to pay if he wanted to continue eating here. 

That shut the small skeleton up. 

When Frisk closed the bar door behind them they smiled. They knew Grillby wouldn’t remember the past timeline, but they still wanted to thank him for his help. He played an important role in the last timeline, and they honestly might not even be here right now if he hadn’t stepped in. 

They skipped happily through the town until they got just a little outside Snowdin. They slowed to a walk when they spotted Papyrus. 

**“KILL IT!”** Chara snarled. 

Frisk rubbed their head and muttered, “Don’t be such a butt-head.” Chara was of course still acting like a grumpy goose after having had their evil plot foiled.  
As soon as he saw them Papyrus shouted, “Human! Allow me to-“ 

“WAIT!”

Papyrus looked extremely put out by the outburst. 

Before he could open his mouth again Frisk continued, “I know you want to fight me, which is why I’m issuing you a challenge!” Frisk couldn’t help sporting a smile as Papyrus perked up.

“What kind of challenge might that be small human? Just know that whatever it may be I THE GREAT PAPYRUS will most certainly win!”

“I challenge you to a spaghetti cook off. The one who makes the best spaghetti wins!” 

Papyrus looked like he was going to explode from excitement. “What do I win if I beat you, human?”

“If you win you can capture me and show me to Undyne, but if I win I get to take you on a date!” 

Papyrus blushed and stammered, “W-wowie! V-very well human, I accept your worthy challenge!” Papyrus pumped his fist into the air and Frisk gave him an even bigger smile before taking his hand and leading him back to his house. 

Just before they reached his house, Frisk gave Papyrus’s hand a gentle squeeze and the kindly skeleton gave an equally gentle squeeze back.  
This felt right. 

The feeling of determination flowed through them as they entered the house. They were totally gonna win that date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's over! Thank you all so much for reading, it has been a blast. :D

**Author's Note:**

> Am... am I a bad person for making Papyrus a bad person?


End file.
